The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, received $94.279 million, about ₦28.85 billion, from Anglo-Swiss multinational commodity trading and mining company, Glencore, being payment for crude oil sold to the company in 2017.
Glencore is one of the oil traders selected to lift Nigeria’s crude oil under various contracts, such as the crude oil term deal and the direct sale direct purchase scheme among others. In its 2018 report to the Canadian authorities obtained by Vanguard, Glencore disclosed that the payment was for a total of 1.9 million barrels of Nigerian crude oil.
This translated to an average of $49.62 per barrel of crude oil. However, Glencore failed to disclose the crude oil grades purchased from the NNPC, describing it as commercially sensitive information. Glencore made total payments of $1.448 billion for 29.244 million barrels of crude oil purchased from six countries, including Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroun, Chad, Republic of Congo, Norway and Chad.
The report pointed out that NNPC, on behalf of Nigeria, accounted for 6.5 per cent of Glencore’s total’s payment in 2017, while the country ranked fifth on the payment schedule, with Ghana’s National Petroleum Corporation emerging the sixth least paid with $45.176 million. It stated that Norway’s Statoil received the highest payments of $509.34 million; followed by Cameroun’s Societe Nationale des Hydrocarbures, SNH, receiving $311.25 million, while Chad’s Societe des Hydrocarbures du Tchad and Democratic Republic of Congo’s Societe Nationale Des Petroles Du Congo received total payments of $294.066 million and $194.24 million respectively.
The ₦29 billion Glencore paid the NNPC was more than enough to fund some power projects listed in the 2018 budget, such as provide the ₦9.4 billion to be set aside as counterpart fund for the Mambilla hydro power project; and provide the ₦9.7 billion counterpart funding earmarked for transmission lines and substations.
In addition, it would fund the ₦2.2 billion construction of 215MW LPFO/ Gas Power station in Kaduna; ₦3.4 billion Kashimbilla transmission and the ₦14.2 billion Fast Power Programme Accelerated Gas and Solar Power Generation. The money could also fund the ₦26.7 billion Federal Government National Housing Programme.
The fund would also pay for all the strategic health projects listed in the 2018 budget, such as the ₦2.4 billion required to match grant from UNFPA, USAID, UNICEF; ₦1.3 billion for Strategic Joint Venture Investments in selected Tertiary Health Institutions with Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) and the ₦8.9 billion required for procurement of RI vaccines and devices.
In addition, Glencore’s payment to the NNPC would provide the ₦3 billion required for Counterpart funding including global fund, health, and GAVI; ₦300 million for health emergencies and contagious diseases outbreaks, such as meningitis, measles, yellow fever, monkey pox, among others; ₦200 million for Midwives Service Scheme; ₦1.2 billion Polio Eradication Initiative; and ₦1. billion training/central procurement of 300,000 dialysis consumables.