•Corporation posts sale of N234.63bn fuel in March
•FG appeals $1.3bn Eni, Shell corruption case in Italian court
Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has continued to narrow its total basket of importation of refined petroleum products to just premium motor spirit (petrol), with the importation of kerosene now fully stopped.
Also, the quantity of petrol brought into country by the corporation climbed to 99.24 per cent in March this year.
The data contained in the just-released March 2021 edition of the NNPC Monthly Financial and Operations Report (MFOR), indicated that a paltry 450,000 litres of diesel was brought into the country during the month, constituting less than 0.76 per cent of total imports.
The NNPC stated that its downstream subsidiary, the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC), recorded N234.63 billion revenue from the sale of white products in the month of March 2021, representing a 24.7 per cent increase compared with the N188.15billion sales recorded in the previous month of February 2021.
The report indicated that total revenue generated from the sales of white products for the period of March 2020, to March 2021, stood at N2.129 trillion, whereby petrol contributed about 99.24 per cent of the total sales with a value of N2.113 trillion.
In terms of volume, it noted that the above value translated to 1.75 billion litres of white products sold and distributed by PPMC in the month of March 2021 compared to 1.4billion litres in the month of February 2021.
“This volume is made up of 1.782 billion litres of petrol and 0.45 million litres of diesel.
Total sale of white products for the period of March 2020 to March 2021 stood at 17.374 billion litres and petrol accounted for 17.265 billion litres or 99.37 per cent.
“The NNPC continues to diligently monitor the daily stock of petrol to achieve uninterrupted supply, effective distribution and zero fuel queues across Nigeria,” it stated.
In the gas sector, the corporation stated that a total of 222.74 billion cubic feet (bcf) of natural gas was produced in the month of March 2021, translating to an average daily production of 7,183.33 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd).
“For the period of March 2020 to March 2021, a total of 2,911.62bcf of gas was produced, representing an average daily production of 7,409.60mmscfd during the period.
“Production from Joint Ventures (JVs), Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) and NPDC contributed about 63.23 per cent, 19.78 per cent and 63.99 per cent respectively to the total national gas production,” it added.
On natural gas off-take, commercialisation and utilisation, NNPC stated that out of the 210.55bcf supplied in March 2021, a total of 138.38bcf was commercialised, consisting of 45.42bcf and 92.96bcf for the domestic and export market respectively.
“This translates to a total supply of 1,465.42mmscfd of gas to the domestic market and 2,998.26mmscfd of gas supplied to the export market for the month.
“This implies that 63.18 per cent of the average daily gas produced was commercialised while the balance of 36.82 per cent was re-injected, used as upstream fuel gas or flared.
“Gas flare rate was 9.50 per cent for the month under review (i.e. 671.13mmscfd) compared to average gas flare rate of 7.25 per cent (i.e. 532.37mmscfd) for the period of March 2020 to March 2021,” the corporation said.
According to the NNPC, a total of 844mmscfd was delivered to gas-fired power plants in the month of March 2021 to generate about 3,530mega watts (mw) compared with February 2021 where 825mmscfd was supplied to generate 3,580mw.
The report also disclosed that the corporation recorded 70 vandalised points across its pipeline network in the period under review, representing 29.63 per cent increase from the 54 points recorded in the previous month.
It stressed that while the Port Harcourt area accounted for 63 per cent of the vandalised points, the Mosimi area accounted for 21 per cent and the Gombe area accounted for the remaining 16 per cent.
Meanwhile, Italian prosecutors and the Nigerian government have appealed the acquittal of Eni and Shell as well as a series of past and present managers, in the Malabu corruption case, according to a Reuters report.
In March, a Milan court had acquitted the two companies and defendants in the oil industry’s biggest corruption case involving the $1.3 billion acquisition of a Nigerian oilfield a decade ago.
The federal government said at the time it was surprised and disappointed by the verdict and would consider lodging an appeal in the case which revolved around a deal in which Eni and Shell acquired the Oil Prospecting Licence (OPL) 245 offshore oilfield in 2011 to settle a long-standing dispute over ownership.
Prosecutors alleged that just under $1.1 billion of that amount was siphoned off to politicians and middlemen, but the court in Milan said there was no case to answer and acquitted the companies and all other defendants.
“We have always maintained that the 2011 settlement was legal. We will review the appeal that has been filed,” Reuters quoted a Shell spokesperson as saying.
Eni stated that it acknowledged the appeal by the prosecutors and Nigerian government. “Waiting to read the reasons for the appeal; Eni confirms its total extraneousness to the contested facts,” a spokesperson said.
Last month, two prosecutors in the case were placed under official investigation by magistrates for allegedly not filing documents that would have supported Eni’s position, with Italy’s justice ministry ordering an inquiry into the conduct of the pair.
