By Dayo Omoogun
Nigeria recorded crude oil and gas export sale of $434.85million in January, 2020, an increase of 94.30 per cent relative to the December 2019 figures in spite of the spike in the acts of vandalism perpetrated against the nation’s oil facilities within the month under review.
This is contained in the January 2020 Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s (NNPC) Monthly Financial and Operations Report, the 54th edition in the series, released Wednesday, in Abuja.
A statement issued by the corporation’s Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Dr. Kennie Obateru, explained that the month’s crude oil export sales contributed $336.65million (77.42 per cent) of the dollar transactions for the period, compared to the $136.36million sales in the previous month.
It added that export gas sales in January amounted to $98.20million, even as it noted that 2019 to January 2020 crude oil and gas transactions valued at $5.18billion was exported.
According to the release, the Corporation’s pipelines suffered 60 vandalism incidents compared to the 40 incidents in the previous month marking a 50% increase and Atlas Cove-Mosimi and Mosimi-Ibadan axis pipelines accounted for 50 per cent and 17 per cent of the breaks respectively, while all other routes accounted for the remaining 33 per cent.
It however explained that NNPC, in collaboration with the local communities and other stakeholders, were working in harmony to curtail this menace.
Other highlights of the report include the gas flare rate, supply of premium Motor Spirit (PMS) across the country, gas supplied to gas fired power plants etc.
The report stated that to ensure steady supply and effective distribution of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise called petrol, across the country, 1.20billion litres of the white product, translating to 38.68mn liters/day, were supplied for the month, stressing that the corporation had continued to diligently monitor the daily stock of fuel to achieve smooth distribution of petroleum products and zero fuel queue across the nation.
It stated that 59.89 per cent of the average daily gas produced was commercialized, while the balance of 40.11 per cent was re-injected, used as Upstream fuel gas or flared. Gas flare rate was 7.90 per cent for the month under review i.e. 643.59mmscfd, compared with average gas-flare rate of 8.46 per cent i.e. 671.40mmscfd, for the period January 2019 to January 2020.