By Modupe Gbadeyanka
A trading surplus of N18.12 billion was achieved for the month of May 2018 by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), a statement from the agency disclosed on Monday.
This was relatively higher than the trading surplus of N17.16 billion recorded in the preceding month, with the additional monthly trading surplus of N960 million mainly due to increased performance of some of the corporation’s subsidiaries like the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC), Nigerian Pipelines and Storage Company (NPSC) and Marine Logistics.
Details of the transactions contained in the recently released May 2018 edition of the Monthly NNPC Financial and Operations Reports also indicated that within the period, the NNPC Group performance was mainly impacted by NPDC’s performance which recorded a favourable variance of N18.22 billion due to increase in revenue with parallel decrease in expenses, resulting in N20.93 billion net increase in the upstream gas and power surplus.
Overall, the report indicated that the increase in performance was bolstered by the relatively high production volumes of 1.97 million barrels per day in April 2018 which was sold in May 2018 thereby reducing cost per unit.
Under the national crude oil and natural gas production, lifting and utilization segment, the report noted that 58.96 million barrels of crude oil and condensate were produced in the month of April 2018 representing an average daily production of 1.97 million barrels. This represents 1.02 per cent increase compared to the preceding month.
A breakdown of the production figure indicated that Joint Ventures (JV) and Production Sharing Contracts (PSC) contributed about 32.82 percent and 41.77 percent respectively, while Alternative Financing (AF), NPDC and Independents accounted for 14.68 percent, 7.65 percent and 3.08 percent respectively.
It was also indicated that the NPDC’s cumulative production from all fields within the period amounted to 47,759,229 barrels of crude oil which translated to an average daily production of 120, 909 barrels per day.
In terms of national gas production, the 34th NNPC Financial and Operations Report highlighted that 231.59 Billion Cubic feet (BCF) of natural gas was produced in the months of May, 2018, translating to an average daily production of 7,785.01 Million Standard Cubic Feet per day (MMSCF/D).
In the downstream sub-sector, NNPC continued to ensure increased petrol supply and effective distribution across the country.
In May 2018, 1.19 billion litres of petrol were supplied by NNPC, translating to 40.59mn Liters/day to sustain seamless distribution of petroleum products which resulted to zero fuel queue across the nation.
In the month under review, the corporation continued to monitor petrol evacuation figures from depots across the nation, and engaged, where necessary, the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) and other stakeholders through existing Joint Monitoring Team.
Adedapo Adesanya 
Dipo Olowookere