Nigeria’s NNPC signs agreement with British Petroleum for direct purchase of petrol to boost supply ahead of yuletide, elections

In readiness to sustain robust supply of petroleum products across the country and especially going into the Yuletide period and beyond, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has signed a six-month Direct Sale-Direct Purchase (DSDP) agreement with the British Petroleum’s (BP) trading arm, BP Oil International Ltd, for the supply ofpetrol.

The agreement will form 20 percent of NNPC’s total petrol supply under the DSDP arrangement, which basically allows the corporation to exchange crude oil with international oil traders for imported petroleum products over a period of time.

 Africa’s largest producer of crude oil and the sixth in the world, Nigeria, ironically imports the bulk of petroleum products for its domestic use, often trading crude for refined products, a situation expected to change when the multi-billion dollars Dangote Refinery becomes operational in 2020.

Speaking shortly after a brief signing ceremony at the NNPC Towers on Thursday, Maikanti Baru, group managing director of the corporation, said as the nation’s products supplier of last resort, NNPC was committed to products availability by inviting new and old players to play in the Nigerian oil sector.

He said over the years, BP had demonstrated the capacity and robustness to augment the forecasted shortfall by NNPC, especially as the winter period approaches and as the nation’s elections get underway early into the new year.

“As a reliable supplier, we think BP is a brand that we can always partner with. We trust the company and we have a good relationship with it. We also believe in the company’s commitment towards the development of local content,” Baru stated.

The NNPC helmsman also commended BP for choosing to partner with AYM Shafa, a local oil company, which he said had been expanding its downstream footprints across the nook and crannies of the country.

“BP’s partnership with AYM Shafa towards delivering on its DSDP obligations makes it a perfect fit for our plans to ensure that there is adequate supply of products throughout the coming yuletide and even beyond the election period. In AYM Shafa, you are talking of a local company with over 150 retail outlets, depots as well as a good network of trucks nationwide,” Baru added.

Responding, John Goodridge, the head of marketing and origination of BP’s oil trading business, said it was a great honour for his company to be trusted by the NNPC as one of its strategic suppliers.

“We are delighted to have the opportunity to work more closely with the NNPC. Going forward, we hope to grow this mutual relationship to greater things,” Goodridge added.

He further assured that his company boasts of a global network of refineries capable of generating the products to meet the specifications required by the NNPC.

He said the ultimate was to ensure that over the next six months, Nigeria does not witness any products shortages.

Introduced in 2016, the DSDP arrangement is a model carried out through direct sales of crude oil to refiners or consultants, who in turn supply NNPC with equivalent worth of products.

Since its inception, the DSDP model has not only saved NNPC millions of dollars that would have been paid through demurrage, it has also proven to be a major component of the corporation’s petroleum products supply portfolio which ensures stability in products supply nationwide.