By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) says it recorded a trading surplus of N9.85 billion for the month of September 2018, higher than the N3.90 billion deficit declared by the agency in the previous month.
Details of the report which is contained in the newly released September 2018 edition of the NNPC Monthly Financial and Operations Report indicated that the improved performance of N13.75 billion increase, relative to that of August 2018, is attributable to higher revenue by the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), the corporation’s upstream subsidiary.
NNPC Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs, Mr Ndu Ughamadu, in the press release stated that NPDC’s production has been on the rise as a result of success recorded in repairs of vandalized pipeline in the Niger Delta and the resumption of crude oil lifting activities at Forcados Terminal.
He said a total crude oil and gas export sale of $626.62 million was made in September 2018 under the NNPC’s US dollar transactions which is 33.32 per cent higher than the previous month.
It stated that crude oil export sales contributed $508.54 million which is 81.16 per cent of the dollar transactions compared with $337.62 million contribution in the previous month.
It also said that export gas sales amounted to $118.08 million in the month, adding that the September 2017 to September 2018 crude oil and gas transactions indicated that crude oil & gas worth $5.45 billion was exported.
In the downstream sector, the report noted that during the period, NNPC continued to ensure increased petrol supply and effective distribution across the country, saying that during the month, 1.66 billion litres of petrol, translating to 55.50 million liters/day, were supplied by the corporation.
It also stated that in the month under review, a total of 125 pipeline points were vandalized; out of which eight pipeline points failed to be welded and only one pipeline point was ruptured. The figure translates to a significant increase from the 86 vandalized points recorded last month.
A further breakdown of the September 2018 records indicates that Aba-Enugu and Mosimi-Ibadan accounted for 36 points and 33 points respectively or approximately 29 percent or 26 percent of the vandalized points respectively.
While PHC-Aba and Zaria-Gusau accounted for 10 percent each; Atlas Cove-Mosimi and other locations accounted for 14 percent and 11 percent of the pipeline breaks respectively.
Regarding natural gas off-take, commercialization & utilization, the report indicated that out of the 238.91 Billion Cubic Feet (BCF) of gas supplied in September 2018, a total of 142.09 bcf of gas was commercialized, comprising 30.36bcf and 111.73bcf for the domestic and export market respectively.
This translates to a total supply of 1,011.96mmscf/d of gas to the domestic market and 3,724.26mmscf/d of gas supplied to the export market for the month.
This implies that 59.47 percent of the average daily gas produced was commercialized while the balance of 40.53 percent of gas was re-injected, used as upstream fuel gas or flared.
The report gave gas flare rate for the month at 8.60 percent i.e. 684.69mmscfd compared with average Gas flare rate of 10.17 percent which is 800.59mmscfd for the period September 2017 to September 2018. The September 2018 NNPC Financial and Operations Report is the 38th edition of the broadcast of the corporation’s books aimed at enhancing probity and transparency of the corporation.
