Adewale Sanyaolu
The Nigerian petroleum sector is currently being ravaged by twin problems of COVID-19 and relentless attack on oil pipelines belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s (NNPC).
According to the January edition of the monthly financial report of the NNPC, 60 pipeline points were vandalised, compared to the 40 incidents recorded in December last year. It described the development as a phenomenal spike of 50 percentage increase.
Atlas Cove-Mosimi and Mosimi-Ibadan axis pipelines accounted for 50 per cent and 17 per cent of the breaks respectively, while all other routes accounted for the remaining 33 per cent, according to the report.
It, however, explained that NNPC, in collaboration with the local communities and other stakeholders, were working in harmony to curtail this menace.
The report also revealed that Nigeria recorded crude oil and gas export sale of $434.85million in January, which is an increase of 94.30 per cent when pitched against the December 2019 figures.
It added that the month’s crude oil export sales contributed $336.65million (77.42 per cent) of the dollar transactions for the period, compared to the $136.36million sales in the previous month.
It added that export gas sales in January amounted to $98.2 million, even as it noted that 2019 to January 2020 crude oil and gas transactions valued at $5.18billion was exported.
The January 2020 edition of the monthly report of the corporation is the 54th edition of the series.
The report stated that to ensure steady supply and effective distribution of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise called petrol, across the country, 1.20billion litres of the white product, translating to 38.68mn liters/day, were supplied for the month, stressing that the corporation had continued to diligently monitor the daily stock of fuel to achieve smooth distribution of petroleum products and zero fuel queue across the nation.