NNPC: Oil Revenue Rose by 35% to $416m in June

By Chineme Okafor in Abuja

Nigeria’s revenue from crude oil and gas sales rose by 35 per cent, representing $416m in June, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said yesterday.

The NNPC in a statement, which announced the release of its June 2018 monthly financial and operations report in Abuja, stated the total financial value of the crude oil and gas export sales the country made in the month was $416.07 million in June.

It explained that the figures were 35.78 per cent higher than that of the previous month which was $343.08 million. This also signified the country bounced back from a drop in oil revenue in May having earned $447.58 million from oil and gas export in April before sliding to $343.08 million in May.

Industry statistics showed that oil price for Brent crude oils in June was $74.41 per barrel; $76.98 per barrel in May of 2018 – the period Nigeria earned less between these three months; and $72.11 per barrel in April.

But details of the sales figures were contained in the statement NNPC’s Group General Manager, Public Affairs, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu, sent to THISDAY, and it indicated that crude oil export sales contributed $274.95 million which NNPC said translated to 66.08 per cent of the dollar transactions compared with $244.72million contribution in the previous month. The export gas sales for the month, it explained amounted to $141.12 million.

The corporation noted that it undertook the repairs of ruptured gas pipeline which supplies gas to most thermal electricity generating plants in the country, leading to appreciable leap in power generation.

“In all, a total of 744 million standard cubic feet of gas per day (mmscfd) was delivered to the gas fired power plants in the month of June 2018 to generate an average power of about 2,970MW compared with the May 2018, where an average of 742mmscfd was supplied to generate 2,940MW.

“A total of 211.51 billion cubic feet (bcf) of natural gas was produced in the month of June 2018, translating to an average daily production of 7,056.22mmscfd,” the statement said.

For the period between June 2017 and June 2018, NNPC stated that a total of 3,080.90 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas was produced, representing an average daily production of 7,826.41mmscfd.

During the period under review, it said gas production from Joint Ventures (JVs); Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs); and Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) contributed about 69.35 per cent; 21.77 per cent; and 8.88 per cent respectively, to the total national gas production.

According to it, out of the 209.55bcf of gas supplied in June 2018, a total of 113.08bcf of gas was commercialised, comprising of 36.23bcf and 76.85bcf for the domestic and export market respectively.

“This translates to a total supply of 1,207.74mmscfd of gas to the domestic market and 2,561.70mmscfd of gas supplied to the export market for the month, implying that 53.96 per cent of the average daily gas produced was commercialised while the balance of 46.04 per cent was re-injected, used as upstream fuel gas or flared,” it added.

NNPC equally noted that gas flare rate within the month was 10.33 per cent, which was 721.83mmscfd.

In the downstream petroleum sub-sector, it explained that 1,194.93 million litres of petrol were supplied into the country through the Direct-Sale-Direct-Purchase (DSDP) arrangements as against the 1,096.45 million litres of petrol supplied in May 2018.

It said the combined petroleum products production by the domestic refineries in June 2018 amounted to 205.73 million litres compared to 161.91 million litres in May 2018.