Ike Amos
13 May 2018, Sweetcrude, Lagos — The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Sunday, lamented the unending sabotage of crude oil facilities across the country, stating that crude oil pipeline vandalism was among the biggest challenges that plagued its downstream operations in the month of January 2018.
The NNPC, in a statement on Monthly Financial and Operations Report for January 2017, said the perennial sabotage has put the corporation at a disadvantaged competitive position.
According to the NNPC, in the period under review, 194 pipeline points were vandalized, with Port Harcourt-Aba and Aba-Enugu pipeline segment of the network accounting for 187 points or 86.57 percent of the affected pipeline.
The report further stated that the total crude processed by the local refineries, Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company (KRPC) and Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC) for the month of January 2018 stood at 204,877 metric tonnes (MT) with PHRC accounting for 183,022 MT while a total of 21,855MT was processed by KRPC.
It stated that production by the two refineries during the period translated into a combined yield efficiency of 89.97 percent as against the 88.99 percent in December 2017.
According to the report, the NNPC was inching closer to choosing financiers for its refineries with a view to achieving a 90 percent capacity utilization per stream day before the end of 2019.
The report also disclosed that the NNPC has increased the supply of gas to the power sector between January 2017 to January 2018 by 88.89%.
It noted that gas-to-power supply as at January 2018, stood at 731 million metric standard cubic feet (mmscf) per day as against 387mmscf/d in January 2017, representing 88.89% increase.
“An average of 731mmscf/d of gas was sent to over 20 domestic thermal power plants in the month of January 2018, generating a thermal power output of 3,076 megawatts (MW) to the national grid, representing 76.7% of the total national power generation”, the report stated.
The report indicated that an additional 365mmscf/d of gas was supplied to the industrial sector to power over 50 companies in the period under review to boost the nation’s economy.
The total gas production for the month was put at 8,169mmscf/d out of which 14% was supplied to the domestic market, 43% for export, while 31% was re-injected and the balance flared.
The report said in the month under review, 1.464 billion litres of PMS and 33.79 million litres of DPK were supplied into the country through the Direct Supply Direct Purchase (DSDP) arrangements, adding that the corporation’s supply of PMS into the country during the period was far above the normal daily supply of 35million litres per day to ensure products availability nationwide.
