NNPC sells $120.49m volume of oil, gas as trading surplus dips

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), yesterday, said the country exported $120.49 million worth of crude oil and gas in September 2020.

Although the development is a 16.28 per cent improvement over the $100.88 million figure posted in the preceding month, the company’s trading surplus, however, dropped by almost N1 billion, sliding from ₦29.60 billion to ₦28.38 billion within the two months.

In the September Monthly Financial and Operations Report (MFOR) released yesterday, statistics showed that proceeds from crude were $85.40 million while gas and miscellaneous receipts stood at $25.31 million and $9.78 million in the period under review.

The corporation blamed the falling surplus on the low contribution from the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), which recorded zero crude oil lifting from the Okono Okpoho facility owing to ongoing repairs.

Other NNPC subsidiaries, the Integrated Data Services Limited (IDSL), National Engineering and Technical Company Limited (NETCO), Nigerian Gas Marketing Company (NGMC), Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC), and NNPC Retail recorded 268 per cent, 234 per cent, 21per cent, 422 per cent and 41per cent trading surpluses during the period.

The document said in the gas sector, 223.82 billion cubic feet (bcf) of natural gas was produced in the month under scrutiny, translating to an average daily production of 7,460.80million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd).

From September 2019 to September 2020, the report noted that 3,039.05bcf of gas was produced, representing an average daily production of 7,730.35mmscfd.

Period-to-date production from joint ventures (JVs), production sharing contracts (PSCs), and NPDC contributed 69.10per cent, 20.29 per cent and 10.61 per cent to total national gas production.

Of the 221.91bcf of gas supplied in September, 140.45bcf was commercialised, consisting of 36.37bcf and 104.08bcf for the domestic and export markets.

The record translated to a supply of 1,212.17mmscfd and 3,469.45mmscfd to the local and international markets during the period.

It also implied that 63.29 per cent of the average daily gas produced was commercialised, while the balance of 36.71per cent was re-injected and used as upstream fuel gas or flared.

Gas flare was 6.66 per cent for the month in question (i.e. 492.93mmscfd compared with the average flare rate of 5.84 per cent i.e. 439.90 mmscfd for the period of September 2019 to September 2020).

About0.59 billion litres of PMS, translating to 19.59mn litres/day, were supplied in September, as 21 pipeline points were vandalised, representing about 43 per cent decrease from the 37 points recorded in August 2020.

Of this figure, NNPC said Mosimi area accounted for 90 per cent of the vandalised points, while the Port Harcourt area was responsible for the remaining 10 per cent, adding that the corporation, in collaboration with the local communities and other stakeholders, strived to reduce and eliminate the menace.