The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has reported an improvement in the supply of gas for power generation, saying that along with its Joint Venture (JV) partners, it produced a total of 223.55 Billion Cubic Feet (BCF) of natural gas in January 2021.
It stated that this translated to an average daily production of 7,220.22 Million Standard Cubic Feet per Day (mmscfd), representing a 4.79 per cent increase over output in December 2020.
The information is contained in the January 2021 edition of the NNPC Monthly Financial and Operations Report (MFOR), according to a statement by the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of the corporation, Dr. Kennie Obateru.
The corporation stated that the daily average natural gas supply to gas power plants increased by 2.38 percent to 836mmscfd, equivalent to power generation of 3,415MW. From January 2020 to January 2021, it stated that a total of 2,973.01BCF of gas was produced, representing an average daily production of 7,585.78 mmscfd during the period.
“Period-to-date production from Joint Ventures (JVs), Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) and Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) contributed about 65.20 per cent, 19.97 per cent and 14.83 per cent respectively to the total national gas production,” it added.
Out of the total gas output in January 2021, the national oil company said a total of 149.24BCF of gas was commercialised, consisting of 44.29BCF and 104.95BCF for the domestic and export markets respectively.
This, it said, translated to a total supply of 1,428.65mmscfd of gas to the domestic market and 3,385.57mmscfd to the export market in the month under review.
“This indicates that 67.15 per cent of the daily gas output was commercialised while the balance of 32.85 per cent was re-injected, used as upstream fuel, or flared,” it stated.
To guarantee energy security, the corporation said it supplied a total of 1.44 billion litres of petrol, translating to 46.30 million litres per day, across the country in the period under review.
The NNPC also announced a 37.21 per cent decrease in cases of pipeline vandalism nationwide in the month under review.
The report indicated that a total of 27 pipeline points were vandalised in January 2021, down from the 43 points recorded in December 2020.
While the Mosimi area accounted for 74 per cent of the vandalised points, Kaduna area and Port Harcourt accounted for the remaining 22 per cent and 4 per cent respectively. However, NNPC stated that it was working in collaboration with the local communities and other stakeholders to reduce and eventually eliminate pipeline vandalism.