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By TAYO ELEGBEDE
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has disclosed in its Monthly Financial and Operations Report (MFOR) for March, 2020 that it recorded a trading deficit of ₦9.53billion for March 2020, a negative from the ₦3.95billion surplus posted in February 2020.
According to the report, the over 300 per cent decline in March 2020 earnings was primarily due to the huge decrease of 181 per cent in the National Oil Company’s Upstream Subsidiary, Nigerian Petroleum Development Company’s (NPDC) owing to the decline in crude oil prices precipitated by the Coronavirus-induced global slowdown which led to reduced exports and dwindling world oil consumption, as well as deficits posted by the refineries, among others.
The NNPC’s MFOR indicated a total crude oil and gas export sale of $256.19million in March 2020 which decreased by 30.89 per cent, compared to last month’s, adding that 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 February, while the export gas sales amounted to $71.60million in the month.
March 2019 to March 2020 crude oil and gas transactions indicated that crude oil and gas worth $4.95billion was exported.
With regards to pipeline vandalism, the National Oil Company reported in a release signed by the corporation’s Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Dr. Kennie Obateru, that there was a 47 percent decrease in pipeline vandalism,as within the period under review, 19 pipeline points were vandalised, as compared to the 32 points recorded in the previous month.
The report explained that 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, and that Corporation in collaboration with the local communities and other stakeholders are continuously striving to reduce the menace to the barest level.
Giving it’s account on gas, the MFOR revealed that 218.37billion Cubic Feet (BCF) of natural gas was produced in March 2020, translating to an average daily production of 7493.65Million Standard Cubic Feet per Day (mmscfd).
The release said 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, and from 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 commercialised, 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 which is the 56th edition in the series, further noted that 55.63% of the average daily gas produced was commercialised, while the balance of 44.37% was re-injected, used as Upstream fuel gas or flared.
It stated the rate of gas flare as 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 report added.
The corporation reassured Nigerians of the availability of Petroleum products stating how 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.
ELEGBEDE TAYO OREDOLA , a journalist with five years professional experience is self motivated and a team player. Her experience came from diverse media, like The Guardian Newspaper, Radio Nigeria among others and now with the INSIDEBUSINESS in the bid to explore the new media.
Email: [email protected]
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