Oil pipeline vandalism drops by 37.21% – NNPC

Increases gas supply for power generation By Sebastine Obasi There seems to be silver lining in the horizon as the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said it has recorded a 37.21 per cent decrease in cases of pipeline vandalism across the country in the month of January 2021. This is contained in the January 2021 edition of the NNPC Monthly Financial and Operations Report (MFOR). The report indicates that a total of 27 pipeline points were vandalized in January 2021 down from the 43 points recorded in December 2020. Specifically, the report noted that the Mosimi Area accounted for 74 per cent of the vandalized points while Kaduna Area and Port Harcourt accounted for the remaining 22 per cent and 4 per cent respectively. However, NNPC stated that it is continuously working in collaboration with the local communities and other stakeholders to reduce and eventually eliminate the pipeline vandalism menace. To guarantee energy security, the Corporation was said to have also supplied a total of 1.44 billion litres of Premium Motor Spirit (petrol), translating to 46.30 million litres/day, across the country in the period under review. In the Gas sector, a total of 223.55 billion cubic feet (BCF) of natural gas was produced in the month of January 2021, translating to an average daily production of 7,220.22 million standard cubic feet per day (MMSCFD). The 223.55BCF gas production figure also represents a 4.79 per cent increase over output in December 2020. Also, the daily average natural gas supply to gas power plants increased by 2.38 per cent to 836mmscfd, equivalent to power generation of 3,415MW. For the period of January 2020 to January 2021, 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. READ ALSO: NNPC records ₦24.19bn trading surplus in December Report Out of the total gas output in January 2021, a total of 149.24BCF of gas was commercialized consisting of 44.29BCF and 104.95BCF for the domestic and export markets respectively. This translates 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 commercialized while the balance of 32.85 per cent was re-injected, used as upstream fuel, or flared. Gas flare rate was 7.73 per cent for the month under review (i.e. 554.01mmscfd) compared with average gas flare rate of 7.19 per cent (i.e. 539.69mmscfd) for the period of January 2020 to January 2021. The 66th edition of the NNPC MFOR highlights NNPC’s activities for the period of January 2020 to January 2021. It is published in line with the Corporation’s commitment to the tenets of Transparency, Accountability and Performance Excellence (TAPE). Speaking on the reduction on pipeline vandalism, Lawrence Messi, Analyst at Financial Derivatives Company Limited, stated: that Nigeria has about 5,000 kilometers of pipelines. It is better for government to initiate private – public partnership to stem the tide of vandalism. He explained that government security agencies are overstretched and will not be able to provide adequate security as expected. Vanguard News Nigeria