The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, yesterday disclosed that the discounted $5.1 billion cash-call debt owed International Oil Companies (IOCs) by Nigeria over a long period would be paid off within five years. Although Kachikwu did not state when the repayment would begin, he however stated that the repayment timeline was part of the concessions Nigeria got from the IOCs for discounting a whopping $1.7 billion from the cash-call arrears.
He recently disclosed at the 72nd National Economic Council (NEC) meeting that through negotiations with the IOCs, the $6.8 billion past due cash-calls burden on the federation was reduced to $5.1 billion, to be paid on an improved oil output.
Speaking after declaring open the inaugural meeting of the National Council on Hydrocarbon in Abuja, Kachikwu also said within the agreement, the payment from incremental oil production will not affect Nigeria’s budget production benchmark of 2.2 million barrels per day (mbd).
He added that the discount translates to almost N8 billion in savings to the country.
“The first concession obviously is the fact that the country got a discount of $1.7 billion, and that is going to be paid over a period of five years and it will be paid from incremental volume of production and so we are not lynching into our 2.2mbpd to be able to pay for that.
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