Nigeria's NNPC reduces crude off-takers to 16

LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigeria's state oil company, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), has reduced the number of off-takers that will emerge after a competitive bid for the proposed 2015/16 crude oil term contract to 16 from 43, it said on Thursday. NNPC, which has been announcing a raft of measures aimed at rooting out corruption in Nigeria's oil sector, said it had extended invitations to Mobil and Forte Oil, in addition to an earlier published list, to bid for the new proposed offshore processing agreement.