LONDON, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Nigeria's National Petroleum Corp (NNPC) this week signed deals to exchange over 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil for imported gasoline and diesel.
The country is seeking to develop its domestic refining capacity but suffered a setback when executives at Nigeria's Dangote told Reuters this month that the company's plans to build Africa's largest refinery would be delayed until the end of 2020.
Other industry sources, however, say production is unlikely to start before early 2022.
Gasoline, kerosene and other petroleum products are largely imported from abroad and the government has increasingly led the effort to acquire the fuels as independent Nigerian refineries have suffered from reduced oil prices and militant attacks.
The NNPC says the scheme supplied some 90% of its import requirements.
Around 132 companies had bid for the tenders issued in March, but only 15 were awarded the one-year contracts dubbed direct sale, direct-purchase (DSDP) effective Oct. 1 -- three months later than expected.
Below are the awardees:
Partner(s) 1 BP/Aym Shafa 2 Vitol/Calson-Hyson 3 Trafigura/AA Rano 4 MRS 5 Cepsa/Oando 6 Bono/Arkleen/Amazon/Eterna 7 Asian Oil/Eyrie/Masters Energy/Casiva 8 Mercuria/Barbedos/Petrogas/Rainoil 9 Matrix Energy/Petratlantic/UTM/Levene 10 Total 11 Duke Oil 12 Sahara 13 Gunvor/AY Maikifi Oil 14 Litasco/Freepoint/Brittania-U 15 Mocoh/Mocoh Nigeria (Reporting By Noah Browning; editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)