The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) is currently exposed to crude-backed loan obligations estimated at N8.07 trillion.
The liabilities span several major crude-for-cash structures that require multi-year crude and gas deliveries as part of repayment.
Available figures show that the company’s commitments cut across multiple facilities used to refinance existing debt, support refinery rehabilitation, fund upstream obligations and provide liquidity for government revenue remittances.
One of the exposures is tied to the Eagle Export Funding arrangement, where the outstanding balance exceeds N1tn.
The repayment structure requires scheduled crude-oil deliveries over an extended period, with the facility running into 2028.
Another major obligation is linked to the incremental gas-supply financing arrangement with Nigeria LNG Limited. Under the agreement, NNPCL received substantial upfront funding to be settled through long-term gas-supply commitments.
Hundreds of billions of naira in gas value remained outstanding at the end of 2024, alongside accrued financing charges.
The refinery-rehabilitation programme also represents a large share of the company’s crude-secured debt. Project Yield, the financing vehicle for the Port Harcourt Refinery upgrade, recorded an outstanding drawdown of more than N1.4tn as at December 2024.
The agreement is collateralised by refined-product-equivalent crude allocations, with repayments scheduled to begin after a moratorium expiring in mid-2025.
A separate five-year financing deal, Project Leopard, held an outstanding balance of roughly N1.3tn, backed by a dedicated crude-delivery commitment of several tens of thousands of barrels per day.
The largest exposure comes from Project Gazelle, a major crude-for-cash arrangement used to finance tax and royalty obligations on Production Sharing Contract assets.
By the end of 2024, the facility carried an outstanding balance above N4tn, making it NNPCL’s most substantial crude-secured liability. Repayment requires sustained crude deliveries through the lifespan of the agreement.
Taken together, the forward-sale obligations tied to Eagle, Yield, Leopard and Gazelle amount to more than 200,000 barrels per day of crude-delivery commitments.
This represents a considerable share of Nigeria’s daily oil output and places significant pressure on NNPCL’s export-allocation flexibility and revenue-generation potential.
Industry analysts note that the scale of the liabilities increases the company’s sensitivity to production volatility, infrastructure disruptions and market-price movements.
The commitments also have implications for government revenue performance, particularly as crude output remains below fiscal targets and upstream investment continues to lag.
Monitoring of these facilities is expected to intensify as stakeholders seek improved transparency around repayment flows, delivery schedules and the long-term impact of crude-secured financing on Nigeria’s petroleum-sector revenue profile.