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

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

NNPC said in a statement issued by its spokesperson, Mr 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.

Punch