Federal Government Signs $1.5Bn Loan Repayment Deal With 30,000 Barrels Of Crude Oil

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on behalf of the Federal Government has signed a $1.5 billion oil prepayment deal with Standard Chartered and backed by oil traders, Matrix Energy and Vitol Group.

According to Reuters, Matrix and Vitol individually would receive 15,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil from Nigeria as repayment over a five-year period from August. The financing arrangement called ‘Project Eagle’ was also supported by United Bank for Africa (UBA) and African Export-Import Bank (Afrexim).

Naija News Understands that the latest Loan agreement development is coming at a time when the sovereignty of Nigeria is highly threatened.

It will be recalled that the House of Representatives raised an alarm in which it noted that Nigeria stands the risk of losing its sovereignty to China, based on some loan agreements.

The lower chamber of the National Assembly noted that some clauses in Nigeria’s loan agreement with China which has already been signed by the federal government puts Nigeria’s sovereignty at risk in the case of a default.

The clause, which the lawmakers described as ‘lethal’ is contained in article 8(1) of the commercial loan agreement between Nigeria and the Export-Import Bank of China.