The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has committed more than 186,000 barrels per day of future crude oil production to debt repayment under three financing arrangements, with outstanding principal exceeding ₦8 trillion as of the end of 2025.
Details contained in the company’s newly released 2025 Audited Financial Statements show that the commitments relate to Project Gazelle, Project Leopard and Project Leopard II, through which NNPCL raised trillions of naira against future crude deliveries.
The arrangements form part of the company’s wider financing obligations, which also include crude oil forward-sale agreements, gas supply arrangements and funding commitments for upstream projects.
As of December 31, 2025, NNPCL had settled ₦2.886 trillion out of aggregate commitments of ₦12.083 trillion across the categories, leaving about ₦9.8 trillion outstanding.
The figures show the scale of financial obligations the national oil company is managing as it uses financing arrangements to support operations, meet existing commitments and fund oil and gas investments.
Under Project Gazelle, NNPCL entered into a five-year forward-sale agreement in December 2023, committing 90,000 barrels of crude oil per day to service the financing.
The company drew ₦4.9 trillion from the ₦5.1 trillion facility. By the end of 2025, it had repaid ₦2.09 trillion in principal, leaving ₦2.81 trillion outstanding.
Project Leopard involved a ₦3.05 trillion facility, which was fully drawn by February 2025. NNPCL had repaid ₦420 billion in principal by December 31, 2025, leaving ₦2.47 trillion outstanding.
Project Leopard II further increased the company’s crude-backed obligations. Under the arrangement, NNPCL obtained ₦3.03 trillion against a commitment to supply 61,250 barrels of crude oil per day.
The facility was fully drawn by the end of 2025, with no principal repayment recorded as of the reporting date. Repayments were scheduled to begin in June 2026 following a six-month moratorium, leaving the full ₦3.03 trillion principal outstanding at year-end.
Combined, the three arrangements commit more than 186,000 barrels of crude oil per day to debt servicing, effectively earmarking part of NNPCL’s future crude receipts for its financing obligations.
Beyond the crude-backed facilities, the financial statements show additional commitments linked to gas supply and upstream asset development.
Under an incremental gas agreement between NNPCL Exploration and Production Limited and Nigeria LNG Limited, NNPCL had drawn ₦535 billion from a ₦772 billion arrangement. Gas valued at ₦312 billion had been recovered, representing 40.41 percent of the arrangement.
Funding requirements for upstream assets also remained significant.
For OML 42, NNPCL had provided ₦44.98 billion against an estimated funding commitment of ₦1.54 trillion, leaving approximately ₦1.49 trillion to be funded.
Under the OML 65 arrangement, the company had drawn ₦13.93 billion from a ₦957.65 billion facility, leaving about ₦943.72 billion outstanding.
For OPL 809/810, NNPCL had provided ₦88.16 billion out of a total commitment of approximately ₦430 billion, leaving around ₦341.85 billion yet to be funded.
The company also reported an uncalled capital commitment of ₦95.99 billion relating to its Class B shares in Afreximbank. NNPCL subscribed ₦159.98 billion and had paid ₦63.99 billion, representing 40 percent of the subscribed amount.
The financing obligations came as NNPCL reported stronger financial and operational performance in 2025.
Its profit after tax increased by 33 percent to ₦7.2 trillion, from ₦5.4 trillion in 2024, while revenue stood at ₦34.5 trillion.
Government remittances through taxes, royalties and other statutory payments rose by 39 percent to ₦22.3 trillion.
Crude oil and condensate production reached 1.77 million barrels per day, the company’s highest level in five years, while natural gas supply climbed to 7.2 billion standard cubic feet per day, a three-year high.
Despite the improved financial and operational results, the audited accounts show that significant portions of NNPCL’s future crude production and funding capacity remain tied to existing financial commitments.
Separately, First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), the United Arab Emirates’ largest lender, is considering bringing other international banks into its $5 billion financing arrangement with Nigeria to distribute part of its exposure.
People familiar with the transaction told Bloomberg that FAB was sounding out potential lenders to assess their appetite for taking portions of its economic exposure.
Under the proposed arrangement, FAB would remain Nigeria’s principal counterparty while sharing the financial exposure with other lenders. The bank could also earn fees for arranging the syndication.
The discussions do not indicate that FAB intends to withdraw from the transaction. Instead, the proposed structure would allow the lender to reduce its concentration of risk while maintaining its relationship with the Nigerian government.
The Federal Government accessed the first $1.5 billion of the $5 billion facility in June.
The financing is structured as a total-return swap, rather than a conventional Eurobond. Nigeria provides naira-denominated government securities as collateral, valued at approximately 133 percent of the amount financed.
The structure provides the government with access to foreign currency while using government securities to secure the transaction.
The arrangement has attracted scrutiny from credit analysts because of the complexity of derivative-based sovereign financing and questions over how the obligations could be treated in a future debt restructuring.
In June, Fitch Ratings warned that such instruments could provide financing flexibility and access to hard-currency liquidity but could also make sovereign debt risks less transparent and potentially complicate future restructuring.
The development comes as Nigeria continues to seek funding for government expenditure and debt refinancing amid rising public debt.
Nigeria’s public debt stood at ₦166.79 trillion at the end of June, comprising ₦91.59 trillion in domestic debt and ₦75.20 trillion in external obligations.
External debt increased from approximately $43.1 billion when President Bola Tinubu assumed office to about $54.5 billion in June, while domestic debt rose from roughly ₦59.1 trillion to ₦91.5 trillion.
The NNPCL crude-backed financing commitments and the proposed syndication of FAB’s exposure to Nigeria’s dollar financing highlight two financing structures being used within Nigeria’s oil and public finance landscape: committing future crude production to meet corporate obligations and using structured transactions to access foreign currency.