By Adedapo Adesanya
Nigeria’s total crude oil and gas export plunged 30.9 percent in the month of March 2020 to $256.2 million, according to the latest data from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
In its Monthly Financial and Operations Report (MFOR) for March 2020, the oil agency said of the total sales, crude oil export sales contributed $184.59 million (72.1 percent) of the dollar transactions compared with $281.1 million contribution in the previous month, while the export gas sales amounted to $71.6 million in the month.
A statement issued by the corporation’s Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Dr Kennie Obateru, stated that in terms of year-on-year sales, from March 2019 to March 2020, crude oil and gas transactions indicated that crude oil and gas worth $4.95 billion was exported.
The national oil company said that 218.4 billion Cubic Feet (BCF) of natural gas was produced in March 2020, translating to an average daily production of 7.5 million Standard Cubic Feet per Day (mmscfd).
This is even as the corporation, within the period under review, recorded a vandalisation of not less than 19 pipeline points, which represented a 47 percent decline from the 32 points recorded in February 2020.
The corporation explained that 3,119.9 BCF of gas was produced for the period March 2019 to March 2020, representing an average daily production of 7,912.05 mmscfd during the period.
It noted that period-to-date production from Joint Ventures (JVs), Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) and NPDC contributed about 69.4 percent, 21.7 percent and 8.9 percent respectively to the total national gas production.
Out of the 218.4 BCF of gas supplied in March 2020, according to the report, 120.7 BCF of gas was commercialized, consisting of 33.5 BCF and 87.3 BCF for the domestic and export market respectively, translating to 1,235.6 mmscfd of gas to the domestic market and 3,817.4 mmscfd of gas supplied to the export market for the month.
The report said 55.6 percent of the average daily gas produced was commercialized, while the balance of 44.4 percent was re-injected, used as Upstream fuel gas or flared.
Gas flare rate was 9.1 percent for the month under review, 679.6 mmscfd, compared with average gas flare rate of 8.4 percent, 66.9 mmscfd for March 2019 to March 2020.
During the month under review, the report also announced a trading deficit of N9.5 billion for March 2020 compared to the N3.9 billion surplus posted in February 2020.
The report declared that the over 300 percent decline in March 2020 earnings was due primarily to the huge decrease of 181 percent in the national oil company’s upstream subsidiary, Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), due to the decline in crude oil prices precipitated by the coronavirus-induced global slowdown which it stated led to reduced exports and dwindling world oil consumption; combined with deficits posted by the refineries, among others.
In the downstream, to ensure continuous availability of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) otherwise called petrol, and effective distribution of the product across the country, 1.7 billion litres of PMS, translating to 59.7 million litres/day were supplied for the month.
Explaining the 19 pipeline points that were vandalized during the period under review, NNPC explained that Atlas Cove-Mosimi accounted for 53 percent, while Mosimi-Ibadan recorded 21 per cent and Suleja-Minna accounted for the remaining 26 percent.
The report assured that NNPC was collaborating with the local communities and other stakeholders to continuously strive to reduce vandalism.
