By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) recorded a 314.2 per cent growth in its trading surplus, the agency has disclosed.
In its 67th edition of the NNPC Monthly Financial and Operations Report (MFOR) for February 2021, it was revealed that the trading surplus rose to N39.9 billion in February 2021 from N9.6 billion in January 2021.
Business Post understands that trading surplus or trading deficit is derived after deduction of the expenditure profile from the revenue for the period under review.
According to the report, in February 2021, NNPC Group operating revenue as compared to January 2021 increased by 35.6 per cent or N152.1 billion to stand at N578.8 billion.
Similarly, expenditure for the month increased by 29.2 per cent or N121.8 billion to stand at N538.9 billion. The expenditure for the month as a proportion of revenue was 0.93 per cent as against 0.98 per cent recorded in the previous month.
The significant increase in trading surplus was attributed mainly to reconciled accounts by the corporation’s downstream subsidiary, the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC), using the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) pricing template.
Other factors that boosted the trading surplus figure, according to a statement issued by the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of the NNPC, Mr Kennie Obateru, included the performance of Duke Oil, Nigerian Gas Company (NGC) and Nigerian Gas Marketing Company (NGMC) which recorded robust gains as a result of increased debt collection and cost optimization measures.
The national oil company stated that during the period under review, 54 pipeline points were vandalized representing 50 per cent increase from the 27 points recorded in January 2021.
The Warri Area accounted for 50 per cent and Mosimi Area accounted for 39 per cent of the vandalized points while Kaduna and Port Harcourt Areas accounted for 7 per cent and 4 per cent respectively.
NNPC continues to work in collaboration with the local communities and other stakeholders to eliminate the menace of pipeline vandalism.
In the period under review, the corporation supplied a total of 1.4 billion litres of Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) translating to 50.5 million litres/day.
In terms of natural gas offtake, commercialization and utilization, out of the 206.1 billion cubic feet (BCF) produced in February 2021, a total of 133.1 BCF was commercialized consisting of 40.2 BCF and 92.9 BCF for the domestic and export market respectively.
This translates to a total supply of 1,433.75 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) of gas to the domestic market and 3,318.25 mmscfd of gas supplied to the export market for the month.
This implies that 64.5 per cent of the average daily gas produced was commercialized while the balance of 35.5 per cent was re-injected, used as upstream fuel gas or flared.
The gas flare rate was 7.7 per cent for the month under review (i.e. 565.52 mmscfd) compared with average gas flare rate of 7.1 per cent (i.e. 529.20 mmscfd) for the period of February 2020 to February 2021.
Dipo Olowookere