Nigeria has reached a deal to pay $5.1 billion in unpaid bills to oil majors including Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil, the minister of state for oil said on Thursday. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the OPEC member's state oil firm, has amassed a total of $6.8 billion in unpaid bills up to December 2015, so-called cash calls, that it was obliged to pay under joint ventures with Western oil firms, with which it explores for and produces oil.
Oil minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu said the agreed amount, which is $1.7 billion less than the total amount owed, would be paid within five years, interest free. Under the arrangement, payment will be in the form of crude oil cargoes but only when Nigeria's production exceeds 2.2 million barrels per day, Kachikwu said, which is the nation's current production when all fields are operating properly.