NNPC records N20.36bn trading surplus in July — up from N2bn in June

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) says its trading surplus increased by 860 percent from N2.12 billion in June to N20.36 billion in July 2020.

The figures are contained in the recently released July 2020 NNPC monthly financial and operations report (MFOR).

In a statement released by Kennie Obateru, the group general manager of its group public affairs division, the NNPC said the increase in trading surplus for July was largely due to the 178 percent rise in the surplus posted by the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), its upstream entity.

Obateru said: “NPDC’s impressive result was bolstered by the continuous improvement in global crude oil demand for the third consecutive month”.

The corporation said the trading surplus was further enhanced by the 739 percent increased profit posted by the Integrated Data Services Limited (IDSL) and a 51 percent growth in performance by Duke Oil Incorporated.

Both IDSL and Duke Oil Incorporated are NNPC subsidiaries.

Obateru said returns from the NNPC Retail Limited and Nigerian Gas Marketing Company (NGMC) also grew by 28 percent and 24 percent respectively in July, owing to increased sales and improved debt collection.

“Gas production in July increased by 2.19 percent at 236.34 billion cubic feet (BCF) compared to the output in June 2020; translating to an average daily production of 7,623.98 million standard cubic feet of gas per day (mmscfd),” the statement read.

“Likewise, the daily average natural gas supply to gas power plants stood at 707mmscfd, equivalent to power generation of 2,421 megawatts (MW)”.

It said 3,079.64 BCF of gas was produced between July 2019 and July 2020 representing an average daily production of 7,812.11 mmscfd during the period.

Within the same period, production from joint ventures, production sharing contracts and NPDC contributed about 70.88 percent, 20.37 percent and 8.75 percent respectively to the total national gas production.

“In the downstream sector, to ensure continued stability in premium motor spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, supply and effective distribution across the country, 1.02 billion litres of PMS translating to 32.95 million litres per day were supplied for the month (July 2020),” it said.

According to the report, 36 pipeline points were vandalised in July, representing a nine percent increase from the 33 points recorded in June 2020.

The Atlas Cove-Mosimi and Aba-Enugu network pipelines recorded the majority of the pipeline attacks. (The Cable)