By Teddy Nwanunobi
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has disclosed that Nigeria maintained a daily crude oil production of 1.43 million barrels per day in the first quarter of 2021.
This is even as the Corporation sold crude oil worth N267.59 billion in February.
The above information are contained in a document the NNPC presented to the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) at its April 20/21 meeting.
The value of the crude, both export and domestic for February, was 97 per cent higher than that of January which was N134.35 billion.
Similarly, crude oil export revenue received in March amounted to $93.37 million, equivalent to N35.72 billion, representing a 204 per cent increase compared to February’s receipts.
“Nigeria maintained 1.426 million bpd OPEC production cut in 1Q21. The overall NNPC crude oil sale valued at N267.59 billion (export and domestic crude) in February 2021 is 97.71 per cent higher than N134.35 billion recorded in January 2021,” NNPC stated.
Domestic gas receipts in the month were N5.75 billion, while feedstock valued at $66.43 million was sold to the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Limited during the period, out of which $63.79 million was received during the month.
In addition, $2.22 million was classified as receipts from miscellaneous sources, including gas and ullage (the amount of empty space in a cargo ship’s hull or in an oil terminal tank) fees as well as interest income received in March.
The Corporation’s value loss due to payment of subsidy as revealed last week in a letter to the accountant general of the federation was also reflected in the document.
It was, however, not clear what gave rise to the difference in the sums which was N112 billion in the letter to the AGF, while it reflected N60.4 billion in the FAAC document.
“The shortfall of N60.4 billion arising from the difference between the landing cost of petrol and the ex-coastal price in the month of February 2021 affected the revenue accruable to the federation.
“The Corporation, being the sole importer of petrol, awaits the outcome of the engagement between government and relevant stakeholders to establish an appropriate petroleum products pricing methodology in a deregulated environment,” the NNPC added.
According to the document, the landing cost for the 36 vessels that brought in the product into Nigeria ranged from N155 to N170, while the ex-depot price remained at N128.
Meanwhile, the loss per vessel ranged from N347 million to N3.4 billion, based on the 1.74 billion litres imported during the month.
For the NNPC’s funding schedule, N6.1 billion was released out of the N6.7 billion budgeted for national domestic gas development, while for gas infrastructure development, N2.4 billion was released out of the N5 billion earmarked.
The crude oil pre-export inspection agency services gulped N462 million, frontier exploration consumed N2.2 billion, renewable energy development was N137 million, pre-export financing gulped N10 billion, N8.3 billion was spent on refinery rehabilitation, while the Nigeria-Morocco pipeline project consumed N83.3 million.
The document also indicated that N1.8 billion was spent on security and pipelines maintenance in December last year, while strategic holding was N1.86 billion, totaling N3.6 billion.
On Joint Venture (JV) repayment agreement, the NNPC noted that till date, it has paid $3.1 billion out of the total negotiated debt of $4.6 billion owed its JV partners, with an outstanding balance of $1.54 billion.
In terms of production losses, N1.63 billion worth of petrol was lost on three pipelines, namely: Atlas Cove/Mosimi, Mosimi/Ibadan and Ibadan/Ilorin segments the month under consideration.
February total crude oil exports payable in March was $93.3 million, while February domestic crude oil payable in May in line with the 90-day payment terms was N231.8 billion, the Corporation added.