NNPC Signs Deal With Shell, Others To Unlock $10 Billion Investment

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its Product Sharing Contract (PSC) partners have signed a deal with some of the world’s biggest oil companies that could unlock over $10 billion in investment in an offshore oilfield.

The corporation in a statement announced on Tuesday that along with Production Sharing Contract (PSC) partners namely Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCo), Total Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited (TEPNG), Esso Exploration. and Production Nigeria Limited (EEPNL), and Nigerian Agip Exploration (NAE), they have executed agreements to renew Oil Mining Lease (OML) 118 for another 20 years.

The five deals signed were the dispute settlement agreement, settlement agreement, historical gas agreement, escrow agreement, and the renewed PSC agreement.

The deal signals the end of "long-standing disputes over the interpretation of the fiscal terms of the production-sharing contracts" between the investors in the field, the statement said.

NNPC described the agreement as a “watershed” in how it would administer deepwater operations in Nigeria. More than $10 billion of investments will “be unlocked as a result of this development”, it said.

The Nigerian government will immediately recognise revenues of $780 million from the signing of the agreement, "while it would also free the parties from over $9 billion in contingent liabilities," the statement said.

The corporation also urged investors to take interest in opportunities in its frontier basins, gas fields, pipeline networks as well as its integrated power supply assets.