(Ecofin Agency) - The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has extended the timeline for the prearranged startup of its new Direct-Sale-Direct-Purchase (DSDP) crude oil trading and products sourcing agreement, to April.

The aim of the DSDP is to substitute the crude oil for product swap programme, which includes terms that had been said to be corrupt. NNPC then involved Duke Oil, Carlson and Napoil on a temporary basis to continue the general supply and distribution of petroleum products.

Negotiations with successful contenders in the DSDP has not been signed by NNPC due to the current fuel scarcity.

According NNPC spokesman, Garba Deen Mohammed, the company was extending the temporary swap to the first week of April when the DSDP will begin.

“For long-term solutions, the NNPC and the government is working to put in place machineries to ensure that our refineries are fixed and working optimally, while the pipelines which have been under attack for some time now are repaired.The Direct Sale Direct Purchase (DSDP) arrangement for crude would commence in the first week of April and all these coupled with the fact that the President has given his support to increase the crude supply to NNPC to ensure local sufficiency of products will go a long way to solve the problems in the short and long term,” he told Energy Mix.

Anita Fatunji