Nigeria Posts $434.85million Crude Oil Export Sales in January

… As Vandalism of NNPC Pipelines Increases

Oru Leonard

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), has said it has recorded crude oil and gas export sale of $434.85million in January, 2020, an increase of 94.30 per cent pitched against the December 2019 figures.

This is contained in the NNPC Monthly Financial and Operations Report, released on Wednesday, April 22 in Abuja.

In a statement signed by Dr. Kennie Obateru, Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of NNPC, he said the crude oil export sales in January 2020 contributed $336.65million (77.42 per cent) of the dollar transactions for the period, compared to the $136.36million sales in the previous month, while export gas sales in January amounted to $98.20million and further noted that from 2019 to January 2020, crude oil and gas transactions valued at $5.18billion was exported.

The January 2020 edition of the monthly report of the corporation is the 54th edition of the series.

The release also said that vandalism of NNPC pipelines across the Country recorded a phenomenal increase of 50 percentage increase in January, and explained that 60 pipeline points were vandalized, compared to the 40 incidents recorded in December last year.

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, according to the report.

It however noted that NNPC, in collaboration with the local communities and other stakeholders, were working in harmony to curtail this menace.

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.

In the Gas Sector, the report revealed that out of the 253.09billion cubic feet (BCF) of gas supplied in January 2020, a total of 151.16BCF of gas was commercialized, consisting of 36.20BCF and 114.96BCF for the domestic and export market, respectively.

This translates to 1,167.80million standard cubic Feet (mmscfd) of gas supply to the domestic market, with 3,708.23mmscfd of gas supplied to the export market during the month.

It further 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.

Out of the 1,167.80mmscfd of gas supplied to the domestic market in January 2020, about 639.70mmscfd of gas, representing 54.78 per cent, was supplied to gas-fired power plants, while the balance of 528.10mmscfd or 45.22 per cent was supplied to other industries.

The report stated that 640mmscfd of gas delivered to gas fired-power plants in January 2020 generated an average power of about 2,683 MW, compared with December 2019 where an average of 596mmscfd was supplied to generate 2,498 MW.

The report further explained that for January 2019 to January 2020, an average of 1,203.93mmscfd of gas was supplied to the domestic market, comprising an average of 693.73mmscfd or (57.62 per cent) as gas supply to the power plants and 510.20mmscfd or (42.38 per cent) as gas supply to industries.