NNPC Records 47% Decrease in Pipeline Vandalism In March

The Nigerian National petroleum Corporation has said 19 pipeline points were vandalized in March as against 32 recorded in February.

According to the Cooperation’s Monthly Financial and Operations Report for March, 2020, the corporation has recorded a 47% decrease in the number of
pipelines vandalised in March.

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.

The report also said 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 NNPC, in collaboration with the local communities and other stakeholders, have continuously strived to reduce the menace to the barest level.

A total of 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.

It explained that period-to-date production from Joint Ventures (JVs), Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) and NPDC contributed about 69.37 per cent, 21.67% and 8.95 %, respectively, to the total national gas production.

Out of the 218.37BCF of gas supplied in March 2020, according to the report, 120.73BCF was commercialized, 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 NNPC said 55.63% of the average daily gas produced was commercialized, while the balance of 44.37% was re-injected, and used as upstream fuel gas or flared.

Gas flare rate was 9.08% for the month under review representing 679.54mmscfd, compared with average gas flare rate of 8.43 %(666.90mmscfd) for March 2019 to March 2020.

During the month under review, the report also announced a trading deficit of ₦9.53billion for March 2020 compared to the ₦3.95billion surplus posted in February 2020.

The report declared that the over 300% decline in March 2020 earnings was due primarily to the huge decrease of 181% in the National Oil Company’s Upstream Subsidiary, Nigerian Petroleum Development Company’s (NPDC) due to the decline in crude oil prices precipitated by the Coronavirus-induced global slowdown which it stated led to reduced exports and dwindling world oil consumption; combined with deficits posted by the refineries, among others.

The NNPC MFOR indicated a total crude oil and gas export sale of $256.19million in March 2020 which decreased by 30.89%, compared to last month’s where crude oil export sales contributed $184.59million (72.05 %) of the dollar transactions compared with $281.14million contribution in the previous month; while the export gas sales amounted to $71.60million in the month.