The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has hinted about its commencement of consultations with relevant oil and gas industry stakeholders on a crude oil and gas swap arrangement aimed at reducing costs of supply and ensuring more crude availability for domestic refineries.
The planned crude oil swap arrangement is expected to enhance compliance with the Domestic Crude Supply Obligation and Domestic Gas Supply Obligation and also reduce the need for crude oil transportation over long distances to meet supply requirements.
The NUPRC Chief Executive, Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, spoke about this initiative during a courtesy visit to the management of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) on Thursday in Abuja.
The commission’s Head of Media and Corporate Communications, Eniola Akinkuotu, in a statement issued on the NUPRC’s boss visit to the NMDPRA Friday, quoted her as saying that the proposed arrangement will enable producers and refiners to optimise existing logistics and
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The statement partly reads: “The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission is consulting widely with stakeholders in the industry on the idea of a domestic crude oil and gas swap that would reduce cost and increase availability of products in the country.
“Once all the modalities are finalised, there would be improved compliance with the Domestic Crude Supply Obligation (DCSO) and the Domestic Gas Supply Obligation (DGSO). How the swap works is that I have an obligation somewhere and I am close to an export facility. Somebody else has an obligation inland and his own (facility) is close to a domestic offtaker.
“So, instead of trying to move from one end to the other, we just agree on a swap arrangement, and there is a mechanism for them netting off”, Eyesan added.
She maintained that the persistence of imports had made it necessary for the commission to explore more efficient options for allocating and delivering domestic crude to refineries, adding that discussions on a crude oil swap are still at an early stage and that all necessary modalities will have to be agreed upon before implementation.
The NUPRC boss also promised to strengthen her commission’s collaboration with the NMDPRA to address challenges across the petroleum products distribution and marketing value chain.
In his remarks, the NMDPRA Chief Executive, Rabiu Abdullahi Umar, commended the NUPRC’s management the successful completion of the 2025 licensing round as well as for improving enforcement of domestic crude supply to local refineries,
Noting the initiatives remain crucial to the growth of nation’s refining industry, Umar pointed out, however, that pricing remained a major consideration in domestic crude transactions.
According to him, although the Petroleum Industry Act 2021 provides for transactions to be conducted on a willing-buyer, willing-seller basis, the price of crude remains critical to the viability of domestic refining.
The NMDPRA boss expressed support for the establishment of strategic petroleum reserves, stressing that such reserves will strengthen Nigeria’s energy security and contribute to price stability.
The proposal crude oil swap arrangement is coming against the backdrop of a significant improvement in crude deliveries to domestic refiners.
Available statistics from the NUPRC showed that 53.7 million barrels of crude oil were supplied to local refiners between April and June 2026, representing 97.4% performance under the DCSO during the second quarter.
Industry analysts are optimistic that the proposed crude swap arrangement will support the current efforts by industry regulators to ensure that increasing domestic refining capacity is matched by reliable and competitively priced crude supplies.
