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By Michael Eboh

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Wednesday, announced a trading surplus of N9.85 billion for the month of September 2018, a significant rebound from the N3.90 billion deficit recorded in August 2018.



In a statement on its Monthly Financial and Operations Report for September 2018, the NNPC attributed the N13.75 billion improvement in its bottom line to higher revenue by its upstream subsidiary, the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, NPDC.

In the statement signed by its Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu, NPDC’s production had been on the rise as a result of success recorded in repairs of vandalized pipeline in the Niger Delta and the resumption of crude oil lifting activities at Forcados Terminal.

The report explained that total crude oil and gas export sale of $626.62 million was recorded 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 to $337.62 million 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, stating that during the month, 1.66 billion litres of petrol, translating to 55.50 million liters per day, were supplied by the corporation.

It also stated that in the month under review, a total of 125 pipeline points were vandalized; out of which eight pipeline points failed to be welded and only one pipeline point was ruptured.

According to the report, the figure translated to a significant increase from the 86 vandalized points recorded last month.

It said, “A further breakdown of the September, 2018 records indicates 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 vandalized 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, commercialization and utilization, 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 30.36bcf and 111.73bcf 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 commercialized while the balance of 40.53 per cent of gas was re-injected, used as upstream fuel gas or flared.”

The report further gave gas flare rate for the month at 8.60 per cent, which was 684.69mmscfd compared with average gas flare rate of 10.17 per cent which was 800.59mmscfd for the period September 2017 to September 2018

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