NNPC sees 4-months of steady growth in trading surplus to N128.28bn in 2021

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) trading surplus has grown consistently four months in a row and this has enabled the once loss-making corporation to amass a total of N128.28 billion as trading surplus in the first four months of 2021, Business A.M. historical calculations from NNPC data have shown.

After the national oil company posted a trading surplus of just N9.62 billion in January, it saw an astronomical 314.24 percent jump to N39.85 billion in trading surplus for February, but this went down marginally to N35.24 billion in March.

Latest figures just released shows the NOC has ramped its trading surplus back up in April to N43.57 billion, representing an increase of 23.64 percent over the March surplus.

The April numbers are contained in the NOC’s monthly financial and operations report (MOFOR), which the corporation is now showing consistency in trying to make public. It had long been accused of running an opaque organisation with its financial activities shrouded in secrecy and having layers of structures in the form of a maze.

Kennie Obateru, group general manager, group public affairs division, explained in a statement that the trading surplus or trading deficit is derived after deduction of the expenditure profile from the revenue for the period under review.

Details of the April numbers shows that the NNPC group operating revenue rose 17.73 percent or N80.67 billion in April 2021 from the figure posted in March to reach N535.61 billion.

Expenditure for the period stood at N492.05 billion rising by 17.24 percent of N72.34 billion. The report however, showed that expenditure as a proportion of revenue stood at 0.92 for the month.

The corporation attributed the rise in April trading surplus to its upstream subsidiary, Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), involving crude oil lifting from OML 119 (Okono Okpoho) and OMLs 60, 61, 62, 63 (Nigerian Agip Oil Company), as well as increase in gas sales.

The positive outlook was further consolidated by the gains of two other subsidiaries, Duke Oil and the National Engineering and Technical Company (NETCO).

In the downstream sector, the company said it distributed a total of 1.67 billion litres of premium motor spirit (PMS), translating to 55.79 million litres per day supplied in the month under review.

Arguments have been quite strident on the recent rise in the daily PMS consumption, with a jury of stakeholders still seeking clarification as to the numbers being pushed out.

The NNPC April report also showed a 34.29 percent reduction in the number of pipeline points vandalized from 70 in March 2021 to 46 in April 2021. While the Port Harcourt area accounted for 54 percent, Mosimi area accounted for 46 percent of the vandalized points.

In the gas sector, a total of 209.27 billion cubic feet (bcf) of natural gas was produced in the month under review, translating to an average daily production of 6,975.72 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd).

For the period of April 2020 to April 2021, a total of 2,902.52 bcf of gas was produced, representing an average daily production of 7,369.76 mmscfd during the period.

Period-to-date production from joint ventures (JVs), production sharing contracts (PSCs) and NPDC contributed about 62.07 percent, 19.95 percent and 17.98 percent, respectively, to the total national gas production.

In terms of natural gas off-take, commercialization and utilization, out of the 206.40bcf supplied in April 2021, a total of 126.83bcf of gas was commercialized consisting of 42.92bcf and 83.91bcf for the domestic and export markets, respectively. This translates to a total supply of 1,430.90mmscfd of gas to the domestic market and 2,976.94mmscfd of gas supplied to the export market for the month.

This implies that 61.45 percent of the average daily gas produced was commercialized while the balance of 38.55 percent was either re-injected, used as upstream fuel gas or flared.

Meanwhile, gas flare rate was 9.74 percent for the month under review (representing 670.19mmscfd) compared with average gas flare rate of 7.42% (542.22mmscfd) for the period of April 2020 to April 2021.

The high gas flare rate is an indication of a corporation and a nation not yet having a clear roadmap on low carbon emission and an energy transition framework.

A recent world report flagged NNPC on its low carbon emission plan, noting that it has a high rate of locked-in emissions to carbon budget. The national oil company also ranked 83rd on the log of world’s 100 most influential companies on their way to meeting the global low temperature target of 1.5•C.

Obateru said the corporation delivered 795mmscfd to gas-fired power plants in the month of April 2021 to generate an average power of about 3,416 MW.