The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Thursday said it had no dealings with companies without legal existence to lift and sell Nigeria’s crude oil grades.
In a statement in Abuja by Ndu Ughamadu, Group General Manager, Public Affairs Division, the corporation said the companies were duly registered at the Corporate Affairs Commission with their registration numbers.
According to Ughmadu, the companies in question are not ghosts. “AMG Petroenergy Limited, Brittania-U, Cassiva Energy, Hyde Energy, Masters Energy, Bono Energy Ltd and Sahara are not ghost companies.
“Contrary to the assertions, NNPC duly entered into the 2017/2018 crude oil term contracts with the companies in their appropriate registered corporate existence.
“Furthermore, the companies collectively lifted a total of 8.8 million barrels of crude oil valued at 436.35 million dollars as at 30th October 2017 contrary to the claim that 67.2 million barrels were lifted.
“The corporation wishes to place on record that all crude oil lifting transactions are backed by irrevocable letters of credit issued by investment grade banks and, therefore, all payments are pre-secured.
“The lifting by the seven companies and all other off-takers are bound by these requirements,’’ Ughamadu said.