By Dipo Olowookere
Over 20 companies, including the Dangote Group and the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) have shown interest to bid for Nigeria’s marginal oil blocks.
According to Independent, the firms are interested in buying the oil blocks, which the Federal Government hopes to sell in 2017.
According to the paper, meetings have been taking place recently concerning the exercise.
Investigations showed that Dangote, which is currently constructing a multi-billion dollar refinery in Lagos, looks forward to bidding for the marginal oil blocks in order to complement its source of crude oil supply.
A source in the company, who preferred not to be named, stated that, “As a policy, we are looking at opportunities in the upstream segment to make great impact as well as source commercial crude oil for our refinery.”
A source in NNPC said that the corporation would explore the opportunity to increase the capacity of NPDC to play increased roles in the exploration and production of crude oil and gas.
“The vision is for the company to become Nigeria’s leading E&P Company with significant global presence which explains our interest in the planned bidding,” he added.
Investigations showed that many other indigenous companies, whose officials are opposed to being listed, have started working toward bidding for the marginal oil blocks.
The Director, Department of Petroleum Resources Mr Mordecai Ladan, who did not respond to text messages yesterday, was said to be meeting frequently with the Minister of State for Petroleum, Mr Emmanuel Kachikwu in Abuja to conclude plans for the bidding.
Adedapo Adesanya 
Modupe Gbadeyanka