Refineries sustain losses as NNPC makes N5.28b

Nigeria’s three refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna, managed by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), continued their loss streak last December, hurting the nation’s economy by about N150 million.

The NNPC’s Monthly Financial and Operations Report (MFOR) showed that the corporation increased its trade surplus to N5.28 billion during its December 2019 operations compared to the N3.95 billion posted for the preceding month.

A further breakdown indicates that Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company Limited recorded the highest loss of N59 million, Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC) posted N44.7 million while Warri Refinery capped the losses with N45.4 million.

The report revealed that the 34 per cent surplus increase of the agency came from the improved performances of some of its entities in the upstream and downstream sectors, especially the Integrated Data Services Limited (IDSL), Nigeria Gas Marketing Company (NGMC), Nigerian Pipeline and Storage Company (NPSC) and Duke Oil Incorporated.

The state oil firm noted that the results were impacted positively by the reduced deficit posted by its corporate headquarters during the period under review; adjustments to previously understated revenues by IDSL and Duke Oil; and the reduction in the costs of pipeline repairs/right of way maintenance and gas purchases by NPSC and NGMC.

In the statement, while 239.29 billion cubic feet (BCF) of gas was supplied in the month, a total of 148.32 BCF of the product was commercialised, consisting of 34.78 BCF and 113.54 BCF for the domestic and export markets.

The development witnessed the supply of 1,121.77 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) of the resource to the domestic market and 3,662.70mmscfd to the export market for the month in question.

The corporation noted that 62.22 per cent of the average daily gas produced was commercialised, while the balance of 37.78 per cent was re-injected, used as upstream fuel gas or flared.

The document added that gas flare rate was 7.78 per cent for the period – that is 598.03mmscfd – compared to the average flare of 8.56 per cent, indicating 678.02mmscfd for December 2018 as against the corresponding period of 2019.

The report stated that gas supply for the two years stood at 3,105.48BCF out of which 466.00BCF and 1,369.90BCF were commercialised for the domestic and export markets, adding that that gas re–injected and flared was 1,269.59BCF.

In the downstream sector, the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC) distributed and sold 2.775 billion litres of white products in December 2019 compared to the 0.841billion litres posted the previous month.The 53rd edition of the document reported 40 vandalised pipeline points, representing about 41 per cent decrease over the 68 points compromised the preceding month.