By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has announced an increase of 80.1 per cent in trading surplus for the month of December 2020.
In the December 2020 edition of the NNPC Monthly Financial and Operations Report (MFOR), the agency said it recorded a trading surplus of N24.2 billion in the period under review compared with the N13.4 billion achieved in November 2020.
Business Post reports that a trading surplus or trading deficit is derived after deduction of the expenditure profile from the revenue in the period under review.
In a press release issued by the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of the NNPC, Mr Kennie Obateru, it was stated that the operating revenue in December 2020 was N546.7 billion in contrast to N409.7 billion recorded in November 2020, indicating an increase by 33.4 per cent or N137 billion.
In the 65th edition of the NNPC MFOR, which highlights the corporation’s activities for the period of December 2019 to December 2020, it was noted that the expenditure for the month increased by 27.5 per cent or N112.8 billion to N522.5 billion from N409.7 billion, with the December 2020 expenditure as a proportion of revenue at 0.96 as against 0.97 in November 2020.
The report indicated that the 80.1 per cent increase was mainly due to the significant rise in the profit of NNPC’s flagship upstream entity, the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), amid improved market fundamentals and strong global demand for crude oil.
Other contributory factors to the robust trading surplus recorded in the month under review included the improved performance by the Nigerian Gas Marketing Company (NGMC), the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC), the National Engineering and Technical Company (NETCO) and Duke Oil Incorporated which recorded noticeable gains in their operations.
In the downstream, 2.26 billion litres of white products were sold and distributed by PPMC in the month of December 2020 compared to 1.72 billion litres in the month of November 2020.
This comprised 2.25 billion litres of petrol, translating to 72.7 million litres/day, 11.40 million litres of Automotive Gas Oil (diesel) and 0.48 million litres of kerosene.
Total sale of white products for the period of December 2019 to December 2020 stood at 18.5 billion litres and petrol accounted for 18.3 billion litres or 99.3 per cent.
In monetary terms, the volume translates to a value of N288.8 billion recorded on the sale of white products by PPMC in the month of December 2020 compared to N226.1 billion sales in November 2020.
Total revenues generated from the sales of white products for the period December 2019 to December 2020 stood at N2.2 trillion, where petrol contributed about 99.1 per cent of the total sales with a value of N2.2 trillion.
In December 2020, a total of 43 pipeline points were vandalized representing about an 18.6 per cent increase from the 35 points recorded in November 2020.
Mosimi Area accounted for 56 per cent of the vandalized points while Kaduna Area and Port Harcourt accounted for the remaining 33 per cent and 12 per cent respectively.
In the gas sector, natural gas production in December 2020 stood at 213.34 billion cubic feet (BCF) translating to an average daily production of 6,881.83 million standard cubic feet of gas per day (mmscfd).
The daily average natural gas supply to power plants increased by 3.5 per cent to 816 mmscfd, equivalent to power generation of 3,445 Megawatts (MW).
Out of the 208.6 BCF of gas supplied in December 2020, a total of 146.7 BCF was commercialised; consisting of 42.9 BCF and 103.8 BCF for the domestic and export market respectively.
This translates to a total supply of 1,383.9 mmscfd of gas to the domestic market and 3,349 mmscfd of gas supplied to the export market for the month.
This implies that 70.3 per cent of the average daily gas produced was commercialized while the balance of 29.7 per cent was re-injected, used as upstream fuel gas or flared.
The gas flare rate was 6.8 per cent for the month under review (i.e. 457.25 mmscfd) compared to the average gas flare rate of 7.2 per cent (i.e. 538.59 mmscfd) for the period December 2019 to December 2020.
Dipo Olowookere