Nigeria Signs New Oil Swap Agreement

Following its cancellation of the oil swaps deals of the previous government of Goodluck Jonathan, the new administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has signed new agreement.

A new oil swap deal was signed between the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and three joint venture companies.

The corporation said on September 9, Wednesday, that it has agreed new crude swap contracts to replace those cancelled last month that were vital for bringing in about half of the country’s domestic gasoline demand.

The NNPC said in an emailed statement that it has secured three OPAs as a “stop-gap designed to run for three months”.

The interim OPAs will run from October until December when new agreements take over in 2016.

The oil corporation confirmed that the OPAs would lapse with the start of the new deals without specifying dates.

The agreement was signed by the NNPC’s trading subsidiary Duke Oil, Calson, a joint venture with Swiss trader Vitol), and Napoil, another joint venture with commodities trader Trafigura).

The corporation had stopped the 2015 deals with Nigerian companies Sahara Group, Aiteo Group and the NNPC’s trading arm Duke Oil because they were“skewed in favour of the companies”.