The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has said it is exploring crude oil supply from Niger Republic in order to resolve epileptic crude oil supply to Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemical Company (KRPC) due to incessant vandalism and other forms of attacks on oil installations in the Niger Delta. As parts of its efforts to address scarcity of kerosene in the country, NNPC is undertaking Kerosene Hydro treating Unit (KHU) rehabilitation in KRPC with equipment overhaul and integrity checks.
According to the latest monthly report of the corporation which covered its activities for the month of November, 2016, the corporation has also intensified its ongoing exploratory activities in the Chad Basin and Benue Trough by collaborating with Niger Republic on sharing of geological data.
Most importantly, the NNPC confirmed its leading role in the downstream sector, in spite of liberalisation of petroleum products and government intervention to ease marketers access to foreign exchange (FOREX). It said, it remains the major importer of petroleum products, especially Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) otherwise called petrol. Also, the ongoing Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) is promising to entirely change the anemic outlook of the country’s refineries.
The corporation bemoaned the challenging operating environment, a situations which limits its aspiration to profitability. The 16th publication of NNPC Monthly Financial and Operations Report indicates a trading deficit of N8.72 billion.
This represents an increase of N1.87billion in trading deficit as against October, 2016. The marginal increase in the trading deficit was due to an upsurge in IDSL operating costs attributed to the ongoing mobilisation activities in both Benue Trough seismic data project located in Bauchi and Party 05 in Elele, Rivers State, despite an improved revenue generation.
Also, the strike action by Bristow Helicopters workers delayed the planned lay-time of Okono Blend resulting to nil NPDC offshore export sales for the month. Other factors that pulled down NNPC’s performance include Force Majeure declared by SPDC as a result of the vandalised 48- inch Forcados export line after the restoration on October 17, 2016 amongst others.
Notwithstanding the reduction in downstream vandalism, NNPC said it is undeniably needs the support of Nigerians especially in areas of security and Infrastructural integrity. Favourable business environment will afford NPDC to reverse on average over N20 billion monthly revenue currently being lost due to pipeline sabotage which would have create more profit and jobs.
NNPC is currently exploring other petroleum acreages in Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea to enhance oil reserve.
On production and utilisation natural gas, NNPC said a total of 229.00 billion standard cubic feet (BCF) of natural gas were produced in the month of November, 2016 translating to an average daily production of 7629.90 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd). For the period December 2015 to November 2016, a total of 2,628.41 Billion Cubic Feet (BCF) of gas was produced representing an average daily production of 7,184.14 mmscfd during the period.
“Production from Joint Ventures (JVs), Production Sharing Contracts (PSC) and NPDC contributed about 67.82 per cent, 24.31 per cent and 7.87 per cent respectively to the total national gas production.
“Out of the 225.03 BCF of gas supplied in November 2016, a total of 127.43 BCF of gas was commercialized comprising of 25.49 BCF and 101.94 BCF for the domestic and export market respectively. This translates to an average daily supply of 849.80 mmscfd of gas to the domestic market and 3,398.00 mmscfd of gas supplied to the export market.
“This implies that 56.63 per cent of the total gas produced was commercialised while the balance of 43.37 per cent was either re-injected, used as upstream fuel gas or flared. Gas flare rate was 10.89 per cent for the month of November 2016 i.e. 817.90 mmscfd compared with average Gas flare rate of 9.49 per cent i.e. 673.24 mmscfd for the period December 2015 to November 2016,” the reports stated.
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