The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has called for tenders under its direct sale, direct purchase import model, an NNPC spokesman said Friday.
The DSDP model, under which selected overseas refiners are allocated crude supplies in exchange for the delivery of an equal value of gasoline to NNPC, started last year, replacing the controversial crude for oil product swaps and Offshore Processing Agreements.
"To ensure sustainable petroleum product supply across the country, NNPC has called tenders for the lifting of crude oil in return for the delivery and supply petroleum products under the direct sale of crude oil and direct purchase of petroleum products," the spokesman said.
Submission of bids will close on February 2, while the program is expected to commence on April 1 and will be for one-year period, he said.
The spokesman did not specify what volumes NNPC is expecting to place in the tenders.
Nigeria imports around 1 million mt/month of petroleum products but the NNPC said January 15 that imports should drop following the recent restarts of all four of the country's state-owned oil refineries.