By Dayo Omoogun
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has reported a 47 per cent reduction in vandalism activities carried out on its pipeline facilities in the month of March, 2020
as compared to the previous month as 19 pipeline points were vandalized against the 32 points recorded in February 2020.
This was contained in the NNPC Monthly Financial and Operations Report for March, 2020, which is the 56th edition, according to a release by the corporation’s Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Dr. Kennie Obateru,
“Atlas Cove-Mosimi accounted for 53 per cent, while Mosimi-Ibadan recorded 21 per cent and Suleja-Minna accounted for the remaining 26 per cent” it added.
The report assured that NNPC, in collaboration with the local communities and other stakeholders, continuously strived to reduce the menace to the barest level.
This improved operating environment, however, did not lead to improved results for the oil giant as ordinarily should be the case as the COVID-19 pandemic and its attendant global economic slump set in. Rather, while crude oil and gas export suffered a 30.89 per cent cut, the profit level of the previous month suffered a 300% reversal.
“During the month under review, the report also announced a trading deficit of ₦9.53billion for March 2020 compared to the ₦3.95billion surplus posted in February 2020.
“The report declared that the over 300 per cent decline in March 2020 earnings was due primarily to the huge decrease of 181 per cent in the National Oil Company’s Upstream Subsidiary, Nigerian Petroleum Development Company’s (NPDC) due to the decline in crude oil prices precipitated by the Coronavirus-induced global slowdown which it stated led to reduced exports and dwindling world oil consumption; combined with deficits posted by the refineries, among others”.
“The NNPC MFOR indicated a total crude oil & gas export sale of $256.19million in March 2020 which decreased by 30.89 per cent, compared to last month’s. Of the total sales, crude oil export sales contributed $184.59million (72.05 per cent) of the dollar transactions compared with $281.14million contribution in the previous month; while the export gas sales amounted to $71.60million in the month.”
The March 2019 to March 2020 crude oil and gas transactions indicated that crude oil & gas worth $4.95billion was exported.
The statement said that the Corporation produced 218.37billion Cubic Feet (BCF) of natural gas in March 2020, translating to an average daily production of 7493.65Million Standard Cubic Feet per Day (mmscfd) adding that 3,119.89BCF of gas was produced for the period March 2019 to March 2020, representing an average daily production of 7,912.05mmscfd during the period.
It explained that period-to-date production from Joint Ventures (JVs), Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) and NPDC contributed about 69.37 per cent, 21.67 per cent and 8.95 per cent, respectively, to the total national gas production.
Out of the 218.37BCF of gas supplied in March 2020, according to the report, 120.73BCF of gas was commercialized, consisting of 33.45BCF and 87.28BCF for the domestic and export market respectively, translating to 1,235.56mmscfd of gas to the domestic market and 3,817.40mmscfd of gas supplied to the export market for the month.
The report said 55.63% of the average daily gas produced was commercialized, while the balance of 44.37% was re-injected, used as Upstream fuel gas or flared.
Gas flare rate was 9.08 per cent for the month under review i.e. 679.54mmscfd, compared with average gas flare rate of 8.43 per cent i.e. 666.90mmscfd for March 2019 to March 2020.
In the Downstream, to ensure continuous availability of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) otherwise called petrol, and effective distribution of the product across the country, 1.73billion litres of PMS, translating to 59.72mn liters/day were supplied for the month.
The corporation stated that it had continued to diligently monitor the daily stock of PMS to achieve smooth distribution of petroleum products and zero fuel queue across the Nation.