The Nigerian state-owned company has published the list of firms who will get crude oil in exchange for petroleum products. As usual, established companies rub shoulders with unknown firms that have close links to the government.
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in mid-May published the list of the 44 winners of the swap deals – crude against petroleum products – it put up for grabs. As always, it includes some usual suspects like Total, Trafigura, Mercuria, Vitol, Cepsa, Litasco, and Mocoh, and the Nigerian firms Oando, Sahara Group, and MRS Oil. But there is also a gaggle of new and unknown traders on the list.
Petra Atlantic is one of them. It has been forcibly wedded to three other companies that have been much favoured since Muhammadu Buhari came to power. These are Abdulwasiu Sowami’s Prudent Energy from Borno State, UTM Offshore, run by Julius Rone who plans to launch Nigeria’s first FLNG (AI, 27/05/21), and Matrix Energy, headed by Abdulkabir Adisa Aliu, a close associate of former presidential chief of staff Abba Kyari. According to our sources, Petra Atlantic is mainly owned by Akinwale Akintujoye, who is said to have links with First Lady Aisha Buhari.
The decision-makers
Three people were the key decision makers in drawing up the list: NNPC’s group managing director Mele Kyari, its director of operations in charge of exploration/production, Adokiye Tombomieye, and President Buhari’s personal assistant and nephew, Tunde Sabiu. Sabiu, a powerful player in oil deals, has shares in AA Rano, which was also among the winners.
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Timipre Sylva was able to push through a few companies such as Cordero, but in the end had only marginal influence on the overall result. Sylva seems to be losing momentum after having used the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) to unsuccessfully attempt to reassign the Addax Petroleum (Sinopec group) licences to Kaztec and Salvic (AI, 03/05/21). Buhari and Kyari in the end returned the rights to Addax.
The NNPC has grouped the 44 firms selected in May into 16 joint ventures. Each will have the equivalent of 30,000 bpd to share over the next year in exchange for an equivalent volume of oil products.
