The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation on Thursday night announced that it had obtained a prepayment funding of about $1bn to support the upstream operations of its subsidiary, the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company.

It said the crude oil prepayment had enabled NNPC to pay NPDC’s tax obligations to the Federal Government of about $700m with the balance utilised to fund NPDC’s capital and operating expenditures.

NNPC said in a statement issued by is spokesperson, Kennie Obateru, that the prepayment financing was backed by future oil production of NPDC.

The corporation said the financing utilises a well-established structure to enable the purchaser of the crude, Eagle Export Funding Limited, to raise financing in the domestic and international markets, to fund an upfront payment to NNPC under a Forward Sale Agreement.

The Punch