By Adedapo Adesanya
Nigeria’s national gas production in January 2021 increased by 4.8 per cent to 223.6 billion cubic feet compared with the output in December 2020.
This was contained in the latest monthly data report by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which indicated that the country maxed an average daily production of 7.2 billion cubic feet per day.
For the period January 2020 to January 2021, a total of 2,973.01BCF of gas was produced, representing an average daily production of 7,585.78 million cubic standard feet (mmscf) during the period.
Production from Joint Ventures (JVs), Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) and NPDC contributed about 65.2 per cent, 20 per cent and 14.8 per cent respectively to the total national gas production.
Out of the 222.2 BCF of gas supplied in January 2021, a total of 149.2 BCF of gas was commercialised; consisting of 44.4 BCF and 104.9 BCF for the domestic and export market respectively. This translates to a total supply of 1,428.7 mmscfd of gas to the domestic market and 3,385.6 mmscfd of gas supplied to the export market for the month.
This implies that 67.2 per cent of the average daily gas produced was commercialized while the balance of 32.6 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. 554.01 mmscfd compared with an average gas flare rate of 7.2 i.e. 539.7 mmscfd for the period January 2020 to January 2021.
Total gas supply for the period January 2020 to January 2021 stood at 3,189.64BCF out of which 526.67BCF and 1,468.21BCF were commercialized for the domestic and export market respectively.
The amount of gas re-injected, fuel gas and gas flared stood at 1,194.76 BCF.
Out of the 1,428.65 mmscfd of gas supplied to the domestic market in January 2021, about 835.88mmscfd of gas, representing 58.5 per cent, was supplied to gas-fired power plants while the balance of 592.77 mmscfd or 41.5 per cent was supplied to other industries.
Similarly, for the period of January 2020 to January 2021, an average of 1,244.41 mmscfd of gas was supplied to the domestic market, comprising an average of 732.58 mmscfd equivalent to 58.9 per cent as gas supply to the power plants and 511.83mmscfd or (41.1 per cent) as gas supply to industries.
About 2,933.08 mmscfd or 86.6 per cent of the export gas was sent to Nigeria LNG Limited in Bonny for January 2021 compared to the period, January 2020 to January 2021 average of 3,033.15 mmscfd or 87.9 per cent of the export gas.
Modupe Gbadeyanka