The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited is now in control of Addax Petroleum Production Sharing Contract PSC assets following the signing of closing documents at the NNPC tower recently.

Mele Kyari, group chief executive officer (GCEO), NNPC Limited, GCEO; and Yonghong Chen, outgoing managing director (MD), Addax, signed the closing documents on behalf of the two parties The signing event was disclosed via a tweet on Tuesday, NNPC said the documents were signed in Abuja, on January 31, 2023.

The official end to the business relationship came three months after the execution of the Addax Transfer, Settlement, and Exit Agreement (TSEA) for the PSC Oil blocks, OMLs 123/124 & 126/137, with the assets now transferred to the concessionaire, NNPC.

“Consequently, NNPC has taken necessary steps to take over the assets and oversee a clean, amicable, and speedy exit for Addax Petroleum Ltd., operate the asset on interim basis as a first step and subsequently appoint a competent replacement PSC contractor while NNPC Limited continues to remain the concessionaire of the assets in line with extant laws and regulations,” the oil firm stated.

the PSC for the oil blocks was initially signed in 1973 between the NNPC and Ashland, but was terminated after 25 years. Subsequently, the NNPC signed another PSC with Addax in 1998 on the blocks which were operated through Addax Petroleum for over two decades. These facilities were producing an average of 6,000 barrels per day due to the challenges, despite the huge potential, stressing that a production increase of circa 10,000 bpd was expected before the end of 2022, and total production was expected to be doubled in 2023.