The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has reported that it lost N9.53 billion from trading in the month of March, 2020, compared to the N3.95 billion surplus posted in February.
The Corporation blamed the deficit on the over 300 percent decline in March 2020 earnings.
A statement by NNPC spokesman, Dr. Kennie Obateru, said that the data was contained in the Corporation’s Monthly Financial and Operations Report for March, 2020.
The report said the decline in earnings for the month was due primarily to the huge decrease of 181 per cent in Nigerian Petroleum Development Company’s (its upstream subsidiary) 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 Monthly Report also indicated a total crude oil and gas export sale of $256.19million in March 2020 which decreased by 30.89 per cent, compared to last month’s.
“Of the total sales, crude oil export sales contributed $184.59 million (72.05 per cent) 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”, Obateru explained.
The report added that March 2019 to March 2020 crude oil and gas transactions indicated that crude oil & gas worth $4.95 billion was exported.
In the Downstream, NNPC reported that 1.73 billion litres of petrol, translating to 59.72mn liters/day were distributed.
According to NNPC, within the month 19 pipeline points were vandalized representing about 47 per cent decrease from the 32 points recorded in February 2020. 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 assured that NNPC, in collaboration with the local communities and other stakeholders, continuously strived to reduce the menace to the barest level.
In gas sector, the report 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).
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 per cent and 8.95 per cent, respectively, to the total national gas production.
Out of the 218.37BCF of gas supplied in March 2020, according to the report, 120.73BCF of gas 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 report said 55.63 percent of the average daily gas produced was commercialized, while the balance of 44.37 percent was re-injected, used as upstream fuel gas or flared.
Gas flare rate was 9.08 per cent for the month under review i.e. 679.54mmscfd, compared with average gas flare rate of 8.43 per cent i.e. 666.90mmscfd for March 2019 to March 2020.
The March 2020 MFO report of the NNPC is the 56th edition in the series that began in 2016.
