The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has announced a trading surplus of ₦9.85billion for September, a vast improvement compared with the deficit of ₦3.90 billion, recorded in August.

Details of the report which is contained in the newly released September 2018 edition of the NNPC Monthly Financial and Operations Report indicated that the improved performance of ₦13.75 billion increase, relative to that of August 2018, is 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 the press release stated that NPDC’s production has been on the rise as a result of success recorded in repairs of vandalized 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 $626.62million was made in September, 2018 under the NNPC’s US dollar transactions which is 33.32 per cent higher than the previous month.

Ughamadu said that crude oil export sales contributed $508.54 million which is 81.16 per cent of the dollar transactions compared with $337.62million contribution in the previous month.

He also said that export gas sales amounted to $118.08 million in the month, adding that the September 2017 to September 2018 crude oil and gas transactions indicated that crude oil & gas worth $5.45 billion was exported.

In the downstream sector, the report released noted that during the period, NNPC continued to ensure increased petrol supply and effective distribution across the country, saying that 1.66billion litres of petrol, translating to 55.50 million litres/day, were supplied by the corporation.

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 respectively.

Regarding natural gas off-take, commercialisation and utilisation, the report indicated 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, comprising 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.

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

The September 2018 NNPC Financial and Operations Report is the 38th edition of the broadcast of the corporation’s books aimed at enhancing probity and transparency of the corporation. (NAN)

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