Yemisi Izuora
Nigeria’s crude oil production recorded a slight growth in April with average daily production coming to 1.97 million barrels.
According to transactions contained in the recently released May 2018 edition of the Monthly Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC Financial and Operations Reports, national crude oil and natural gas production, lifting and utilization segment, showed that 58.96 million barrels of crude oil and condensate were produced in the month of April 2018 translating to average daily production of 1.97 million barrels. This represents 1.02 per cent increase compared to the preceding month.
Overall, the report indicated that the increase in the Corporations performance was bolstered by the relatively high production volumes of 1.97 million barrels per day in April 2018 which was sold in May, 2018 thereby reducing cost per unit.
The report further showed that NNPC, recorded a trading surplus of N18.12bn for the month of May, 2018, a performance which is relatively higher than the trading surplus of N17.16bn recorded in the preceding month.
The report also indicated that the additional monthly trading surplus of N0.96bn was mainly due to increased performance of some of the corporation’s subsidiaries namely: the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC), Nigerian Pipelines and Storage Company (NPSC) and Marine Logistics.
Within the period, the NNPC Group performance was mainly impacted by NPDC’s performance which recorded a favorable variance of N18.22bn due to increase in revenue with parallel decrease in expenses. This resulted in N20.93bn net increase in the upstream gas & power surplus.
A breakdown of the production figure indicated that Joint Ventures (JV) and Production Sharing Contracts (PSC) contributed about 32.82 per cent and 41.77 per cent respectively, while Alternative Financing (AF), NPDC and Independents accounted for 14.68 per cent, 7.65 per cent and 3.08 per cent respectively.
It was also indicated that the NPDC’s cumulative production from all fields within the period amounted to 47,759,229 barrels of crude oil which translated to an average daily production of 120, 909 barrels per day.
In terms of national gas production, the 34th NNPC Financial and Operations Report highlighted that 231.59 Billion Cubic feet (BCF) of natural gas was produced in the months of May, 2018, translating to an average daily production of 7,785.01 Million Standard Cubic Feet per day (MMSCF/D).
In the downstream sub-sector, NNPC continued to ensure increased petrol supply and effective distribution across the country. In May, 2018, 1.19billion litres of petrol were supplied by NNPC, translating to 40.59mn Liters/day to sustain seamless distribution of petroleum products which resulted to zero fuel queue across the nation.
In the month under review, the corporation continued to monitor petrol evacuation figures from depots across the nation, and engaged, where necessary, the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) and other stakeholders through existing Joint Monitoring Team.