101 Firms Compete For Fresh NNPC Offshore Processing Deals

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Thursday, conducted the public opening of bids tendered by a total of 101 Nigerian and multinational companies competing for the award of Offshore Processing Arrangements (OPA).
By the OPA deal, the NNPC undertakes to allocate a dedicated volume of crude oil for refining at offshore locations in exchange for petroleum products at pre-agreed yield pattern.
Under the previous agreement, the NNPC allocated a total of 210,000 barrels of crude oil per day for refining at offshore locations in exchange for petroleum products at pre-agreed yield pattern.
Consequently, the Corporation, in September, announced an interim OPA with three of its Joint Venture companies – Duke Oil, Carlson and Napoil – which it said would lapse with the advent of the fresh OPA contracts.
Yesterday’s exercise, which was broadcast live on national television and conducted in the full glare of representatives of the Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative, (NEITI), executives of the bidding companies and other crucial oil and gas industry stakeholders was a swift departure from the previous OPA award exercises which were conducted without public participation.
Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, said at the flag-off of the exercise that the Corporation has taken the pain to make the process leading up to the award open to public scrutiny to demonstrate before all members of the public that NNPC had nothing to hide.