The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has announced a trading surplus of N₦9.85 billion for September 2018, a figure higher than the previous month’s deficit of ₦N3.90 billion.
The corporation said in its September 2018 Monthly Financial and Operations Report released on Wednesday in Abuja that the improved performance of ₦N13.75 billion increase, relative to that of August 2018, was attributable to higher revenue by the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), the corporation’s upstream subsidiary.
NNPC Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu, in a statement said NPDC’s production has been on the rise as a result of success recorded in repairs of vandalised pipeline in the Niger Delta and the resumption of crude oil lifting activities at Forcados Terminal. He said a total crude oil and gas export sale of $626.62 million was made in September, 2018 under the NNPC’s US dollar transactions which is 33.32 per cent higher than the previous month.
The statement said crude oil export sales contributed $508.54 million which is 81.16 per cent of the dollar transactions compared with $337.62 million contribution in the previous month.
It also said that export gas sales amounted to $118.08 million in the month, and that the September 2017 to September 2018 crude oil and gas transactions indicated that crude oil and gas worth $5.45 billion was exported.
In the downstream sector, the report noted that during the period, NNPC continued to ensure increased petrol supply and effective distribution across the country, saying that during the month, 1.66 billion litres of petrol, translating to 55.50 million litres/day, were supplied by the corporation.
It also stated that in the month under review, a total of 125 pipeline points were vandalised; out of which eight pipeline points failed to be welded and only one pipeline point was ruptured. The figure translates to a significant increase from the 86 vandalised 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 vandalised 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.
