NNPC Increases Supply of Gas to Power Sector by 89%

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, has announced that it has increased the supply of gas to the power sector by 88.89 per cent.

According to the oil firm, the increase was recorded between January 2017 and January 2018.

The NNPC disclosed this in its monthly financial and operations report for January 2018, which was released in Abuja on Sunday.

The report stated that gas-to-power supply as of January 2018 stood at 731 million metric standard cubic feet per day as against 387mmscf/d in January 2017, representing 88.89 per cent 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 to the national grid, representing 76.7 per cent of the total national power generation”, the report stated.

The NNPC said an additional 365mmscf/d of gas was supplied to the industrial sector to power over 50 companies in the period under review.

It stated that the total gas production for the month was put at 8,169mmscf/d, out of which 14 per cent was supplied to the domestic market, 43 per cent for export, while 31 per cent was re-injected, and the balance flared.

The report gave the total crude processed by the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company and Port Harcourt Refining Company for the month of January 2018 as 204,877 metric tonnes, with the KRPC accounting for 183,022MT, while a total of 21,855MT was processed by the KRPC.

It stated that production by the two refineries during the period translated into a combined yield efficiency of 89.97 per cent as against the 88.99 per cent in December 2017.

The report added that in the month under review, 1,463.66 million litres of PMS and 33.79 million litres of Dual Purpose Kerosene were supplied through the Direct Supply, Direct Purchase arrangement.

It noted that the corporation’s supply of Premium Motor Spirit into the country during the period was far above the normal daily supply of 35 million litres in order to ensure the product’s availability nationwide.

The report reiterated that the NNPC was inching closer to choosing financiers for its refineries with a view to achieving 90 per cent capacity utilisation per stream day before the end of 2019.

The NNPC monthly report, however, listed crude oil pipeline vandalism among the biggest challenges that plagued the downstream operations of the corporation in the month of January 2018, adding that the malaise put the corporation at a disadvantaged competitive position.