Uche Usim, Abuja
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has released its September monthly financial and operations report, declaring a trading surplus of ₦9.85 billion. The figure is higher than the previous month’s deficit of ₦3.90 billion.
According to the report, the improved performance of ₦13.75 billion increase, relative to that of August 2018, was attributable to higher revenue by the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), the corporation’s upstream subsidiary.
NNPC Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu, in a press release, stated that NPDC’s production had been on the rise as a result of the success recorded in repairs of vandalised pipeline in the Niger Delta and the resumption of crude oil lifting activities at Forcados Terminal.
The said a total crude oil and gas export sale of $626.62million was made in September, 2018 under the NNPC’s US dollar transactions which was 33.32 per cent higher than the previous month.
It stated that crude oil export sales contributed $508.54 million which was 81.16 per cent of the dollar transactions compared with $337.62million contribution in the previous month.
It also said that export gas sales amounted to $118.08 million in the month, adding that the September 2017 to September 2018 crude oil and gas transactions indicated that crude oil and gas worth $5.45 billion was exported.
In the downstream sector, the report noted that during the period, NNPC continued to ensure increased petrol supply and effective distribution across the country, saying that during the month, 1.66billion litres of petrol, translating to 55.50 million liters/day, were supplied by the corporation.
It also stated that in the month under review, a total of 125 pipeline points were vandalised; out of which eight pipeline points failed to be welded and only one pipeline point was ruptured. The figure translated to a significant increase from the 86 vandalised points recorded last month.
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A further breakdown of the September, 2018 records indicated that Aba-Enugu and Mosimi-Ibadan accounted for 36 points and 33 points respectively or approximately 29 per cent or 26 per cent of the vandalised points respectively. While PHC-Aba and Zaria-Gusau accounted for 10 per cent each; Atlas Cove-Mosimi and other locations accounted for 14 per cent and 11 per cent of the pipeline breaks respectively.
Regarding natural gas off-take, commercialisation and utilization, the report indicated that out of the 238.91 Billion Cubic Feet (BCF) of gas supplied in September 2018, a total of 142.09 bcf of gas was commercialized, comprising 30.36 bcf and 111.73 bcf for the domestic and export market respectively.
This translates to a total supply of 1,011.96mmscf/d of gas to the domestic market and 3,724.26mmscf/d of gas supplied to the export market for the month.
This implies that 59.47 per cent of the average daily gas produced was commercialised while the balance of 40.53 per cent of gas was re-injected, used as upstream fuel gas or flared.
The report gave gas flare rate for the month at 8.60 per cent i.e. 684.69 mmscfd compared with average Gas flare rate of 10.17 per cent which is 800.59 mmscfd for the period September 2017 to September 2018.
The September 2018 NNPC Financial and Operations Report is the 38th edition of the broadcast of the corporation’s books aimed at enhancing probity and transparency of the corporation.