Yemisi Izuora
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has increased the supply of gas to the power sector between January 2017 to January 2018 by 88.89 per cent.
The information was contained in the corporation’s monthly Financial and Operations report for January 2018 which was released today in Abuja.
According to the report gas-to-power supply as at January 2018, stood at 731 million metric standard cubic feet (mmscf) per day as against 387mmscf/d in January 2017, representing 88.89 per cent increase.
“An average of 731mmscf/d of gas was sent to over 20 domestic thermal power plants in the month of January 2018, generating a thermal power output of 3,076 megawatts (mw) to the national grid, representing 76.7% of the total national power generation”, the report stated.
The report indicated that an additional 365mmscf/d of gas was supplied to the industrial sector to power over 50 companies in the period under review to boost the nation’s economy.
The total gas production for the month was put at 8,169mmscf/d out of which 14% was supplied to the domestic market, 43% for export, while 31% was re-injected and the balance flared.
The 30th edition of the monthly Financial and Operations report gave the total crude processed by the local refineries [Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company (KRPC) and Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC)] for the month of January 2018 as 204,877MT, with KRPC accounting for 183,022MT while a total of 21,855MT was processed by KRPC.
It stated that production by the two refineries during the period translated into a combined yield efficiency of 89.97 per cent as against the 88.99 per cent in December 2017.
The report said in the month under review, 1,463.66million litres of PMS and 33.79million litres of DPK were supplied into the country through the Direct Supply Direct Purchase (DSDP) arrangements, adding that the corporation’s supply of PMS into the country during the period was far above the normal daily supply of 35million litres per day to ensure products availability nationwide.
The report reiterated that NNPC was inching closer to choosing financiers for its refineries with a view to achieving a 90 per cent capacity utilization per stream day before the end of 2019.
The NNPC monthly Financial and Operations report, however, listed crude oil pipeline vandalism among the biggest challenges that plagued the downstream operations of the corporation in the month of January 2018, saying the malaise put the corporation at disadvantaged competitive position.
It stated that during the period under review, 194 pipeline points were vandalized, with PHC-ABA and ABA-Enugu pipeline segment of the network accounting for 187 points or 86.57 per cent of the affected pipeline.
The report gave the average international Brent crude price for January 2018 as $69.08/barrel as against $64.37/barrel in December 2017, saying that over the last 12 months the crude oil price had risen to about 26.57 per cent.
It stated that the continuing efforts by OPEC and non-OPEC producers to stabilize the market, as well as crude inventory pulls in the middle of the healthy economic growth and improving oil demand were reasons for the stability in the price of the black commodity.
NNPC has been publishing its financial and operations report monthly since late 2015 in furtherance of its commitment to the promotion of transparency and accountability.