NNPC posts N9.85bn trade surplus for September

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation,(NNPC) says it made a trading surplus of N9.85 billion in September 2018.

The Corporation disclosed this in its monthly financial and operation report released in Abuja, on Wednesday.

It said the surplus was a significant rebound from the N3.90 billion deficit recorded in August 2018.

It attributed the N13.75 billion improvement in its bottom line to higher revenue by its upstream subsidiary, the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC).

“NPDC’s production has been on the rise as a result of successes recorded in repairs of vandalized pipeline in the Niger Delta and the resumption of crude oil lifting activities at Forcados Terminal,” it said.

On Crude oil and Gas export, the report explained that total crude oil and gas export sale of $626.62 million was recorded in September under the NNPC’s US dollar transactions.

This, it said was 33.32 per cent higher than the previous month.

It stated that crude oil export sales contributed 508.54 million dollars which was 81.16 per cent of the dollar transactions compared to 337.62 million dollars contribution in the previous month.

”Export gas sales amounted to 118.08 million dollars in the month under review,” it added.

It further noted that from September 2017 to September 2018 crude oil and gas transactions indicated that crude oil and gas worth 5.45 billion dollars was exported.

In the downstream sector, the report said that NNPC in the month under review continued to ensure increased petrol supply and effective distribution across the country.

It stated that during the month, 1.66 billion litres of petrol, translating to 55.50 million litres per day, were supplied by the corporation.

It also stated that 125 pipeline points were vandalized; out of which eight points failed to be welded and only one pipeline point was ruptured.

According to the report, the figure translated to a significant increase from the 86 vandalized points recorded last month.

“A further breakdown of the September, 2018 records indicates that Aba-Enugu and Mosimi-Ibadan accounted for 36 points and 33 points respectively or approximately 29 per cent or 26 per cent of the vandalized points respectively.

“While PHC-Aba and Zaria-Gusau accounted for 10 per cent each; Atlas Cove-Mosimi and other locations accounted for 14 per cent and 11 per cent of the pipeline breaks respectively,” it said.

On natural gas off-take commercialisation and utilisation, it said that out of the 238.91 billion Cubic Feet (BCF) of gas supplied in September 2018, a total of 142.09 bcf of gas was commercialised.

This, it added comprised 30.36bcf and 111.73bcf for the domestic and export market respectively.

“This translates to a total supply of 1,011.96mmscf/d of gas to the domestic market and 3,724.26mmscf/d of gas supplied to the export market for the month.

“This implies that 59.47 per cent of the average daily gas produced was commercialised while the balance of 40.53 per cent of gas was re-injected, used as upstream fuel gas or flared.” it said.

The report further gave gas flare rate for the month at 8.60 per cent, which was 684.69mmscfd compared with average gas flare rate of 10.17 per cent which was 800.59mmscfd for the period September 2017 to September 2018.