The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Thursday announced that three oil giants were amongst 21 companies awarded crude oil term lifting contracts for 2016.

These companies include France's oil super major, Total and international trading firms Trafigura and Vitol.

According to NNPC spokesman, the 2016 crude oil term contracts was awarded to 21 companies for the lifting of an overall 991,661 bpd of oil. He stated that the term of the contracts were dispersed into five categories which includes international refineries, international oil traders, indigenous oil trading companies, affiliates of International Oil Companies, and downstream operators.

Other beneficiaries of the contract are, India National Oil Company, Emirates National Oil Company, the trading arms of Shell and ExxonMobil, and indigenous trader Sahara Energy.

NNPC had in August said it will only consider companies that has evidence of business integrity and were ready to enter into an undertaking that will guarantee that they will comply strictly with Nigerian anti-corruption laws for the lucrative contracts.

The 991,661 b/d of oil on offer is about 47.2% of the country's current production of 2.1 million bpd. It is also lesser than export of approximately 1.17 million bpd in preceding contracts, representing the decline in the country's oil production, Platt News reports.