The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, (NNPCL), is projected to service crude-for-loan obligations until 2029, driven by increasing demand from domestic refineries.
The debt, tied to several crude-for-loan deals amounting to $8.86 billion, involves pledging 272,500 barrels of crude oil daily to repay loans. This equates to about 8.17 million barrels per month, as revealed by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) and NNPCL’s financial reports.
Rising local demand is fueled by the operational Port Harcourt and Warri refineries, along with the $20 billion ÆŠangote Refinery. These facilities will require over 123 million barrels of crude oil in the first half of 2025, according to the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, (NUPRC).
Key loan agreements include: Project Eagle: Multiple tranches, including a $935 million tranche repaid by 2023 and a $900 million tranche maturing in 2028, secured with 21,000 barrels per day; Project Gazelle: A $3 billion facility, maturing in five years, backed by 90,000 barrels per day (bpd) from Production Sharing Contract assets.
Others are: Project Yield: A $950 million deal supporting the Port Harcourt Refinery, pledging 67,000 bpd, with repayment beginning in late 2024.
NNPCL has repaid $2.61 billion, representing 29.4% of the total debt, while $6.25 billion remains outstanding. These agreements highlight the company’s increasing reliance on crude oil production to meet financial obligations.
