Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
The revenue from the sale of white products – petrol, kerosene, diesel, cooking gas – rose by 24.7 per cent to N234.6 billion in the month of March from N188.2 billion sales recorded in February 2021.
This was disclosed by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) downstream subsidiary, the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC), in the March 2021 edition of the NNPC Monthly Financial and Operations Report (MFOR).
According to a statement by the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of the corporation, Mr Kennie Obateru, the report indicated that total revenues generated from the sales of white products for the period of March 2020 to March 2021 stood at N2.129 trillion, where petrol contributed about 99.2 per cent of the total sales with a value of N2.113 trillion.
In terms of volume, the above value translates to 1.75 billion litres of white products sold and distributed by PPMC in March 2021 compared to the 1.4 billion litres in February 2021.
This volume is made up of 1.782 billion litres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) or petrol and 0.45 million litres of Automotive Gas Oil (AGO), popularly known as diesel.
Total sale of white products for the period of March 2020 to March 2021 stood at 17.374 billion litres and PMS accounted for 17.265billion litres or 99.4 per cent, the statement noted.
The state oil corporation emphasized that it will continue to diligently monitor the daily stock of PMS to achieve uninterrupted supply, effective distribution and zero fuel queue across Nigeria.
In the gas sector, a total of 222.74 billion cubic feet (BCF) of natural gas was produced in the third month of this year, translating to an average daily production of 7,183.33million standard cubic feet per day (MMSCFD).
For the period of March 2020 to March 2021, a total of 2,911.62bcf of gas was produced, representing an average daily production of 7,409.60mmscfd during the period.
Production from Joint Ventures (JVs), Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) and NPDC contributed about 63.2 per cent, 19.8 per cent and 63.9 per cent respectively to the total national gas production.
In terms of natural gas off-take, commercialization and utilization, out of the 210.6 bcf supplied in March 2021, a total of 138.4 bcf was commercialized, consisting of 45.4 bcf and 92.9 bcf for the domestic and export markets respectively.
This translates to a total supply of 1,465.4 mmscfd of gas to the domestic market and 2,998.3 mmscfd of gas supplied to the export market for the month.
This implies that 63.2 per cent of the average daily gas produced was commercialized while the balance of 36.8 per cent was re-injected, used as upstream fuel gas or flared.
Nigeria is the seventh country with the largest flaring rate and this was confirmed as the review showed that the gas flare rate was 9.5 per cent for the month under review (i.e. 671.1 mmscfd) compared to the average gas flare rate of 7.3 per cent (i.e. 532.37 mmscfd) for the period of March 2020 to March 2021.
On domestic gas supply to the power sector, a total of 844 mmscfd was delivered to gas-fired power plants in the month of March 2021 to generate about 3,530 megawatts (MW) compared with February 2021 where 825 mmscfd was supplied to generate 3,580 MW.
The report also informed that the corporation recorded 70 vandalized points across its pipeline network in the period under review, representing a 29.6 per cent increase from the 54 points recorded in the previous month.
While the Port Harcourt area accounted for 63 per cent of the vandalized points, the Mosimi area accounted for 21 per cent and the Gombe area accounted for the remaining 16 per cent.
NNPC is, however, working in collaboration with the local communities and other stakeholders to effectively monitor the pipelines with a view to reducing and eventually eliminating the menace of pipeline vandalism.
The March 2021 MFOR is the 68th edition of the report, it is published monthly to keep the Nigerian public up to date with the operations of the Corporation in line with the management’s guiding philosophy of Transparency, Accountability and Performance Excellence (TAPE).
