By Modupe Gbadeyanka
A trading surplus of N20.36 billion (approximately N20.4 billion) has been declared by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in July.
A statement issued in Abuja on Thursday by the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of the NNPC, Mr Kennie Obateru, explained that the surplus was 858 per cent higher than the N2.12 billion recorded in June 2020.
The increase, according to the state-owned oil agency, was driven by the 178 per cent rise in the surplus posted by the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), NNPC’s flagship upstream entity.
This NPDC performance was as a result of the continuous improvement in global crude oil demand for the third consecutive month, which raised the profit posted by the Integrated Data Services Limited (IDSL) by 739 per cent and jerked up the performance of Duke Oil Incorporated by 51 per cent.
The NNPC, in its July 2020 NNPC Monthly Financial and Operations Report (MFOR), noted that returns from NNPC Retail Limited and Nigerian Gas Marketing Company (NGMC) during the period under review also grew by 28 per cent and 24 per cent respectively, owing to increased sales and improved debt collection.
In the downstream sector, the NNPC said it supplied 1.02 billion litres (about 32.95mn litres/day) of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) across the country to avert scarcity.
The report noted that during the period under review, 36 pipeline points were vandalized, representing about 9 per cent increase from the 33 points recorded in June 2020.
Atlas Cove-Mosimi and Aba-Enugu network accounted for 28 per cent each, while PHC-Aba and the other locations recorded 14 per cent and the remaining 31 per cent respectively.
NNPC in collaboration with the local communities and other stakeholders continuously have strived to reduce the menace of pipeline vandalism.
In the gas sector, the agency said production in July 2020 increased by 2.19 per cent at 236.34 billion cubic feet (BCF) compared to output in June 2020; translating to an average daily production of 7,623.98 million standard cubic feet of gas per day (mmscfd).
Likewise, the daily average natural gas supply to gas power plants stood at 707 mmscfd, equivalent to power generation of 2,421MW.
For the period July 2019 to July 2020, 3,079.64BCF of gas was produced, representing an average daily production of 7,812.11mmscfd during the period.
Period-to-date production from Joint Ventures (JVs), Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) and NPDC contributed about 70.88 per cent, 20.37 per cent and 8.75 per cent respectively to the total national gas production.
Adedapo Adesanya