07 December 2015, Sweetcrude, Abuja – Oil and gas firms engaged in Production Sharing Contracts (PSC) accounted for 41.72 per cent of total crude oil and condensates production in Nigeria valued at N2.577 trillion ($12.877 billion) in nine months, between January and September 2015.
Data released by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in its Monthly Financial and Operations Report for October 2015, disclosed that the PSC companies produced 239.624 million barrels of crude oil and condensates in the nine-month period, compared to a total of 574.325 million barrels recorded in the country within the period.
Using an average crude oil price of $53.78 per barrel, as stated in the report and an average exchange rate of N200 per dollar, the 239.624 million barrels of crude oil and condensates produced by Production Sharing Companies translates to N2.577 trillion ($12.887 billion).
Further analysis of production of the Production Sharing Companies showed that in January, the sub-sector produced 28.142 million barrels; in February, they produced 25.113 million barrels; March’s production was 26.845 million barrels, while in April they turned out 26.009 million barrels.
In addition, for May, June, July, August and September, PSCs recorded crude oil and condensates production of 27.198 million barrels, 25.594 million barrels, 27.858 million barrels, 26.503 million barrels and 26.363 million barrels respectively.
In general, the report stated that total crude oil production in Nigeria in the nine-month period stood at 574.325 million barrels, an average of 2.1 million barrels per day, with an estimated value of $30.887 billion, N6.177 trillion.
Further analysis of total crude oil production showed that 68.067 million barrels of crude oil was produced in January 2015; February recorded production of 61.861 million barrels; March witnessed 64.156 million barrels; April was 60.84 million barrels; May saw 63.49 million barrels; June’s production was 59.09 million barrels; July was 67.5 million; August recorded 63.34 million and September saw crude oil production of 65.98 million barrels.
In addition to the contribution of PSCs, Joint Venture Companies accounted for 31.7 per cent of total crude oil production with 182.29 barrels of crude oil and condensates production, while Alternative Finance accounted for 16.3 per cent of total crude oil production, with 93.569 million barrels.
Independents and marginal fields’ operators accounted for 5.72 per cent of total crude oil and condensates production with 32.825 million barrels, while the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, NPDC, produced 26.017 million barrels of crude oil, representing 4.53 per cent of total production.
In its analysis of NPDC’s performance, the report said, “NPDC production is expected to hit production level of 250,000 barrel per day, after the completion of the on-going NPDC re-kitting project.
“Production from NPDC wholly operated assets amounted to 7.855 million barrels or 30 per cent of total production, with Okono Okpoho (OML 119) alone producing more than 79 per cent of the NPDC operated Assets or 24.08 per cent of the total NPDC production.
“Also on the NPDC operated JV assets, in which NPDC own 55 per cent controlling interest, crude oil production amounted to 10.803 million barrels or 42 per cent of the NPDC total production. On the JV assets not operated by NPDC, production level stood at 7.359 million barrels or 28 per cent of the company’s production.”