Ike Amos
13 December 2017, Sweetcrude, Abuja – Nigeria earned $2.26 billion from the export of crude oil and gas in eight months, between January and August 2017, data from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, has revealed.
Using an average exchange rate of N306 to a dollar, the $2.26 billion earned from crude oil and gas export in the eight-month period translated to N694 billion.
According to the NNPC, in its Monthly Financial and Operations Report for August 2017, the country earned $171.12 million, $168.19 million, $404.55 million and $142.12 million from crude oil and gas export in January, February, March and April 2017 respectively; while export proceeds for May, June, July and August stood at $247.82 million, N261.0 million, $430.23 million and $442.47 million respectively.
Given a breakdown of the earnings, the report stated that the country got $1.536 billion from crude oil export in the eight-month period; $666.058 million was received from gas export, while $65.45 million was earned from other export receipts.
In its month-on-month analysis, the report stated that total export receipt of $442.47 million was recorded in August 2017 against $430.23 million in July 2017.
It noted that contribution from crude oil amounted to $310.34 million in August, while $116.56 million and $15.57 million came from gas and miscellaneous receipts, respectively.
“Of the export receipts, $154.87 million was remitted to Federation Account while $287.61 million was remitted to fund the Joint Venture (JV) cash call for the month of August 2017 to guarantee current and future production,” the report declared.
The report also noted that total crude oil and gas export receipt for the period of August, 2016 to August, 2017 stood at $3 billion, out of which $2.43 billion was transferred to JV cash call in line with the budget, and the balance of $0.57 billion was paid to the Federation Account.
The report noted that in July 2017, crude oil production in Nigeria averaged 2.01 million barrels per day, which represented 3.15 per cent increase compared to June 2017 production. It also represented an increase of 21.58 per cent relative to July 2016 performance.
The report attributed the steady improvement in production to the semblance of normalcy in the volatile Niger-Delta region following Federal Government’s sustained engagement with the various stakeholders and resumption of export activities at the Forcados Terminal after many months of non-operational activities.
However, it averred that issues that still pulled production during the period include production shut-in at Qua Iboe, Bonga, and Bonny Terminal, amongst others.
