Ike Amos
02 July 2016, Sweetcrude, Lagos — In spite of the challenges posed by the bombing of oil and gas assets in the Niger Delta, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) recorded revenue of $131.17 million from the export of gas in the month of April 2016.
Specifically, the NNPC, in its Monthly Financial and Operations Report for April 2016, disclosed that the amount was for the export sale of Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) and for exports by the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG), Escravos Gas-to-Liquid (EGTL) and N-Gas.
In general, the NNPC noted that total export proceeds of $300.59 million were recorded in April, 2016 as receipt as against $141.87 million in March 2016.
In a breakdown of the receipt, the NNPC stated that receipt from crude oil amounted to $164.40 million while Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and EGTL proceed of $131.17 million, and miscellaneous receipt amounting to $5.02 million.
The NNPC explained that improvement in total export receipt to the Federation is largely due to NLNG feedstock sale arrears received in April 2016,
The NNPC, however, lamented that the shut-in of about 380,000 barrel of oil per day (b/d) at Forcados terminal following force majeure declared by Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) on 15th February 2016 continued to impact on the federation, as all un-lifted February and March cargoes were deferred until the repair is completed.
The NNPC further stated that total export crude oil and gas receipt for the period of March 2015 to April 2016 stood at $3.776b billion, all of which was transferred to fund Joint Venture (JV) Cash Call for the period.
According to the NNPC, JV funding, which is a first line charge to Federation Account, gulped all the export proceeds during the period under review, explaining that the 2016 approved budget requires monthly funding of about $712.46 million.
“NNPC is therefore mandated to sweep all the export receipt to JV Cash Call funding implying a zero Dollar remittance to Federation Account,” the NNPC explained.
In addition to dollar earnings from the export of gas, the report stated that the NNPC earned N3.658 billion from the domestic sale of gas in the month of April.
This was in addition to oil sale of N52.557 billion; bringing total sales proceed receipt in the month under review to N56.215 billion.
Particularly, the report said, “NNPC transferred the sum N56.215 billion into the Federation account for the month under review. Thus the sum of N933.117 billion has been paid to FAAC from March 2015 to April 2016.”
In addition, the report pointed out that the NNPC Group’s operating revenue for the months of March and April 2016 were N107.83 billion and N102.45 billion respectively, representing 34.28 per cent and 32.57 per cent respectively of the monthly budget.
Continuing, the report said, “Similarly, operating expenditure for the same periods were N126.72billion and N121.87billion respectively, which also represents 46.88% and 45.09% of the budget for the months respectively.
“Operating deficits of N18.89billion and N19.43 billion were recorded for the months of March and April 2016 respectively as against monthly budgeted surplus of N44.23 billion. The deficit increased by 2.83 per cent in the month of April 2016 due to a slight decline in revenue generation which is attributed to decrease in petroleum product sales by 7.11 per cent.”