By Obas Esiedesa
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Sunday disclosed that it got $355.93 million from crude oil and gas export in September this year.
The amount, it said, is 52.84 percent rise compared to the August, 2019 figure of $232.87million.
A statement in Abuja by the corporation’s Acting Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Mr. Samson Makoji said the figure is contained the NNPC Monthly Financial and Operations Report (MFOR) for the September 2019.
A breakdown of the figures indicated that crude oil export sales contributed $267.97 million (75.29 per cent) of the dollar transactions, compared with $150.73 million contribution in the previous month; while the export gas sales amounted to $87.96million in the month.
The September 2018 to September 2019 Crude Oil and Gas transactions indicated that crude oil & gas worth $5.63billion was exported.
The corporation also disclosed that it recorded a trading surplus of N8.59 billion recorded in the month under review which showed an increase of 65 per cent compared to the N5.20 billion surplus posted in August 2019.
Makoji stated that the improved surplus posted in the Upstream and Downstream Sector transactions of NNPC’s subsidiary companies, Integrated Data Services Limited (IDSL), Nigerian Gas Company (NGC), Nigerian Gas Marketing Company (NGMC), Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC), Nigerian Pipeline and Storage Company (NPSC), and Duke Oil Incorporated, explained the significant increase of 65 per cent in the September trading of corporation.
According to him, the percentage increase in the performances of these NNPC subsidiaries cushioned the September sharp decline in the results posted by the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) as compared with the company’s posting in August, 2019.
He said that in the Gas Sector, 235.12 billion Cubic Feet (BCF) of natural gas was produced in the month of September 2019, translating to an average daily production of 7,837.42Million Standard Cubic Feet per Day (mmscfd). For the period September 2018 to September 2019, a total of 3,106.80 BCF of gas was produced representing an average daily production of 7,941.69mmscfd during the period.
Period-to-date Production from Joint Ventures (JVs), Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) and NPDC contributed about 69.43 per cent, 21.14 per cent and 9.43 per cent respectively to the total national gas production, according to the report.
In terms of natural gas off take, Commercialization & Utilization, out of the 235.12BCF of gas supplied in September 2019, 135.63BCF of gas was commercialized, consisting of 32.25BCF and 103.38BCF for the domestic and export market respectively.
This translates to a total supply of 1,074.86mmscfd of gas to the domestic market and 3,446.02mmscfd of gas supplied to the export market for the month under review, implying that 57.68 per cent of the average daily gas produced was commercialized while the balance of 42.32 per cent was re-injected, used as upstream fuel gas or flared.
In the Downstream Sector, NNPC said a total of 186 pipeline points were vandalized, representing an increase of 18 per cent from the 158 points breached in August 2019. Out of the vandalized points, 30 failed to be welded while none was ruptured. Aba-Enugu axis accounted for 77 per cent of the breaks, while PHC-Aba, ATC-Mosimi and other routes accounted for 8 per cent each.
