(Ecofin Agency) - Nigeria's crude oil term contracts for next year are expected to be decided by mid-December, an official from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC) said.

The crude oil term lifting contracts comprise of the export of about 1.17 million bpd of Nigerian crude, out of the 2.2 million bpd being produced. This crude is then sold by contract holders to end-users, refiners and other buyers.

“The crude tender will close on November 24 and we expect to have new contracts in place before the end of the second week of December,” Mele Kyari, the group general manager from NNPC's crude oil marketing division, said.

NNPC in October handed out guidelines for companies interested in partaking in the lifting of Nigerian crude for 2017. However bids for these contracts, which are valid for a year from January 1, are to be submitted on November 24, as stated in the tender document. 27 names are in the current 2016 crude term contracts including both local and international companies. Oil companies such as Total, Shell and ExxonMobil, trading firms like Trafigura and Vitol, India's IOC and HPCL, Sinopec and Sahara Energy are existing term contract holders.

According to Platts, industry sources have said that the 2017 term contracts could witness more local and domestic Nigerian companies on the list, due to the return of violence in the Niger Delta region. Last week, Niger Delta leaders met with President, Muhammadu Buhari, demanding allocation of oil blocks and contracts to local companies from the region as conditions to ending the attacks militancy in the region.

The country’s oil output fell close to a 30-year lows of about 1.3 million bpd from the 2.2 million bpd being produced earlier in the year as attacks on oil facilities in the Niger Delta by militants increased tremendously, hurting Nigeria's economy which had already been worsened by the slump in global oil prices.

Anita Fatunji