By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has noted that natural gas production in Nigeria rose by 4.8 per cent to 223.6 billion cubic feet (BCF) in the month of January 2021.
This was contained in the 66th edition of the NNPC MFOR Monthly Financial and Operations Report (MFOR), according to a press release by the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of the Corporation, Mr Kennie Obateru.
It highlights NNPC’s activities for the period of January 2020 to January 2021.
It is published in line with the corporation’s commitment to the tenets of Transparency, Accountability and Performance Excellence (TAPE).
According to the data, this translates to an average daily production of 7,220.2 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd).
Also, the daily average natural gas supply to gas power plants increased by 2.4 per cent to 836 mmscfd, equivalent to power generation of 3,415 megawatts.
For the period of January 2020 to January 2021, a total of 2,973.0 BCF of gas was produced representing an average daily production of 7,585.8 mmscfd during the period.
Period-to-date Production from Joint Ventures (JVs), Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) and Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) contributed about 65.2 per cent, 19.9 per cent and 14.8 per cent respectively to the total national gas production.
Out of the total gas output in January 2021, a total of 149.24 BCF of gas was commercialized consisting of 44.29 BCF and 104.95 BCF for the domestic and export markets respectively.
This translates to a total supply of 1,428.65 mmscfd of gas to the domestic market and 3,385.57 mmscfd to the export market in the month under review.
This indicates that 67.2 per cent of the daily gas output was commercialized while the balance of 32.9 per cent was re-injected, used as upstream fuel, or flared.
The gas flare rate was 7.7 per cent for the month under review (554.01 mmscfd) compared with an average gas flare rate of 7.2 per cent (539.69 mmscfd) for the period of January 2020 to January 2021.
The state oil corporation also announced that there was a 37.2 per cent decrease in cases of pipeline vandalism across the country in the month of January 2021.
The report indicates that a total of 27 pipeline points were vandalized in January 2021 down from the 43 points recorded in December 2020.
The Mosimi Area accounted for 74 per cent of the vandalized points while Kaduna Area and Port Harcourt accounted for the remaining 22 per cent and 4 per cent respectively.
However, NNPC noted that it was continuously working in collaboration with the local communities and other stakeholders to reduce and eventually eliminate the pipeline vandalism menace.
To guarantee energy security, the corporation also supplied a total of 1.44 billion litres of Premium Motor Spirit (petrol), translating to 46.30 million litres/day, across the country in the period under review.
Modupe Gbadeyanka