NNPC Sets $1bn Baseline Capacity Condition For OPA Offer

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has set stringent conditions which includes that a company must have a minimum of $1 billion turnover to qualify for the new Offshore Processing Agreement (OPA) contract.

 

Also, the Corporation said before a company could be considered, it must have a refinery, affiliated to a refinery or access to a refinery, in addition to showing concrete plans to train and transfer knowledge to Nigerians who work in the companies.

These conditions were disclosed by the NNPC during the opening of bids for the OPA yesterday in Abuja, were 101 companies’ tendered bids for the contract expected to be in place by January 2016. This is the first time the exercise would be done publicly.

Successful companies would be invited to participate in offshore processing of 210,000 barrels per day (bpd) on behalf of the NNPC, out of the 445,000 bpd allocated to it for domestic consumption. The arrangement according to the NNPC, is expected to come in place by January 2016 and would last for 12 months.

Speaking at the event, Group Managing Director of the Corporation, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, also disclosed that the Corporation would put an end to OPA by 2017, saying this would be the last OPA bid the Corporation would open.

He said the NNPC has a target of getting the country’s refineries to produce sufficient products that can meet daily national consumption within the next 18 months.

“I do hope that this is probably the last OPA bid that we will open, that our refineries will get to a point where they can produce our product and satisfy the needs of this country. That’s where we should be headed and that’s certainly the target that we have over the next 18 months,” he said.

He added that “As a part of the exercise, we must pick companies that are known to everybody, not shrouded in mysteries, where the terms are very transparent and comparative to the terms found anywhere else in the world where OPA’s are being done, and futuristic growth pattern especially for companies that do business in Nigeria.”

Juliet Alohan