54 oil pipelines vandalised in February – NNPC

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) says that 54 petroleum pipeline points were vandalised in February 2021.

The Corporation disclosed this on its Monthly Financial and Operations Report (MFOR) for the month of February released in Abuja, on Thursday.

It said the number represented 50 per cent increase from 27 points recorded in January this year.

“During the period under review, 54 pipeline points were vandalised representing 50 per cent increase from the 27 points recorded in January 2021.

“The Warri Area accounted for 50 per cent and Mosimi Area accounted for 39 per cent of the vandalized points while Kaduna and Port Harcourt Areas accounted for seven per cent and four per cent, respectively,” it said.

According to the report, the NNPC says it will continue to work in collaboration with the local communities and other stakeholders to eliminate the menace of pipeline vandalism.

Also, in the period under review, the report revealed that the corporation made ₦39.85 billion trading surplus, representing a massive 314.24 per cent leap from the ₦9.62 billion surplus it recorded in January.

Trading surplus or trading deficit is derived after deduction of the expenditure profile from the revenue for the period under review.

“NNPC Group operating revenue as compared to January 2021, increased by 35.64 per cent or N152.07 billion to stand at N578.79 billion.

“Similarly, expenditure for the month increased by 29.21 per cent or N121.83billion to stand at N538.94billion.

“The expenditure for the month as a proportion of revenue was 0.93 per cent as against 0.98 per cent the previous month,” it said.

The report attributed the significant increase in trading surplus to reconciled accounts by the Corporation’s downstream subsidiary, the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC), using the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) pricing template.

Other factors that boosted the trading surplus figure, according to the Corporation, included the performance of Duke Oil, Nigerian Gas Company (NGC) and Nigerian Gas Marketing Company (NGMC) which recorded robust gains as a result of increased debt collection and cost optimization measures.

On supply of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) also known as Petrol, it said that the Corporation supplied a total of 1.41bn litres of petrol translating to 50.52m litres/day.

In terms of natural gas offtake, commercialisation and utilization, out of the 206.05 billion Cubic Feet (BCF) produced in February 2021, a total of 133.06BCF was commercialised consisting of 40.15 BCF and 92.91 BCF for the domestic and export market, respectively.

This, it said, translated to a total supply of 1,433.75 million Standard Cubic Feet Per Day (mmscfd) of gas to the domestic market and 3,318.25mmscfd of gas supplied to the export market for the month.

According to the MFOR, it implies that 64.48 per cent of the average daily gas produced was commercialised while the balance of 35.52 per cent was re-injected, used as upstream fuel gas or flared.

The report also revealed that Gas flare rate was 7.67 per cent for the month under review (i.e. 565.52mmscfd) compared with average gas flare rate of 7.12 per cent (i.e. 529.20mmscfd) for the period of February 2020 to February 2021.

The February 2021 NNPC Monthly Financial and Operations Report is the 67th in the series.