A major win of the ongoing Intra-African Trade Fair in Durban, South Africa, is the $1.04 billion deal between the African Export-Import Bank, Afreximbank, and NNPC, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, announced Monday.
The facility, which is mainly for trade financing and export of the crude produced by the national oil company, would be repaid with about 25,000bpd of crude oil produced by the state oil company.
Benedict Oramah, president of Afreximbank, was quoted as saying that the deal would benefit Nigeria, promising to fund similar projects across Africa.
The bank also signed a $250 million contract with an aviation logistics company, Blue Horn, to fund the upgrading of three airports in Nigeria and another $270 deal for oil exploration activities with Mars E&P.
The Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF2021) kicked off on 15th November with the theme: “Building Bridges for a successful AfCFTA”, and has so far attracted thousands of visitors to the Durban International Convention Centre, venue of the event.
Meanwhile, Mallam Mele Kyari, Group Managing Director of the NNPC, has predicted that crude oil prices may hit $100 per barrel mark in the coming months as global inventory tightens and the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) continues to resist pressure to pump more oil into the market.
OPEC has continued to stick with its agreed plan since July, to release an additional supply of 400, 000 barrels every month to gradually return the cuts it embarked upon in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, despite promptings from the United States, India, Japan and other countries to supply more barrels.
Currently, the global oil market has a deficit of over 600,000 bpd, a development that has led to increase in oil and gas prices and bringing along attendant inflationary pressures.
Kyari said: “The fact is very clear, during the covid-19 pandemic, we shut down some of these wells and they usually don’t come back as early as we want them.
“Right now, we do have some challenges around the facilities and these are being taken care of. There’s enormous work going on that will get us back before the end of the year.
“There was some level of lack of clarity in our own fiscal environment and this is being sorted out by the passage of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA). And the meaning of this is that we are seeing very good traction with our key partners in the deep offshore asset development,” he mentioned.
