NNPC Says Its Trade Surplus Grew By 858% in One Month

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Thursday said that the value of products it exported in July 2020 grew by N18.24 billion or 858%, compared to June.

NNPC’s trade surplus climbed from N2.12 billion in June to N20.36 billion in the month under review, Kennie Obateru, its Group General Manager Public Affairs Division, announced in Abuja.

Mr Obateru cited a 178% improvement in the surplus reported by NNPC’s foremost upstream unit, the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) as the major contributor to NNPC’s overall trade surplus.

The state-owned corporation stated at the release of its Monthly Financial and Operations Report for July that the NPDC feat was achieved on the back of sustained increase in global oil demand for three months in a row.

A 739% rise in profit of the operations of the Integrated Data Services Limited alongside a 51% leap in the profit of Duke Oil, both of them subsidiaries of the NNPC, also helped the firm’s fortune, Obateru said.

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“Returns from NNPC Retail Limited and Nigerian Gas Marketing Company (NGMC) during the period under review also grew by 28 per cent and 24 per cent respectively, owing to increased sales and improved debt collection.

“In the Gas sector, Gas production in July 2020 increased by 2.19 per cent at 236.34Billion Cubic Feet (BCF) compared to output in June 2020; translating to an average daily production of 7,623.98Million Standard Cubic Feet of gas per day (mmscfd),” NNPC said in a note on its website.

Within the month, pipeline vandalism incidence worsened by roughly 9%, jumping to 36 breached pipeline points from 33 in June.

Atlas Cove-Mosimi and Aba-Enugu network were each responsible for 28% of vandalisation, PHC-Aba accounted for 14% while the rest 31% came from other locations.

Nearly four decades old, NNPC’s decrepit pipelines are afflicted by poor maintenance. They have also been at the mercy of the activities of oil thefts and militants despite the multimillion contracts awarded to a string of shadowy companies, some of them linked to former militants, to secure them.