The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), on Wednesday, revealed a trading deficit of N9.53billion in crude oil for March 2020, compared to the N3.95billion surplus recorded in February same year.

It also said about 218.37billion Cubic Feet gas was produced in the month under review.

This was contained in the NNPC Monthly Financial and Operations Report for March 2020, issued by the corporation's Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Dr Kennie Obateru, on Wednesday, in Abuja.

The report blamed the over 300 per cent decline in March 2020 earnings to 181 per cent decrease in the National Oil Company's Upstream Subsidiary, Nigerian Petroleum Development Company's (NPDC) caused by the fall in crude oil prices which was precipitated by the Coronavirus pandemic.

It said the pandemic led to reduced exports and dwindling world oil consumption; combined with deficits posted by the refineries, among others.

The NNPC report indicated a total crude oil and gas export sale of $256.19million in March 2020 which decreased by 30.89 per cent, compared to February.

'Of the total sales, crude oil export sales contributed $184.59million (72.05 per cent) of the dollar transactions compared with $281.14million contribution in the previous month; while the export gas sales amounted to $71.60million in the month.

'March 2019 to March 2020 crude oil and gas transactions indicated that crude oil and gas worth $4.95billion was exported,' it stated.

Also, it said between 2019 and 2020 March, Nigeria produced 3,119.89billion cubic feet natural gas between 2019-2020 March, making an average daily production of 7,912.05mmscfd.

It explained that period-to-date production from Joint Ventures (JVs), Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) and NPDC contributed about 69.37 per cent, 21.67 per cent and 8.95 per cent, respectively, to the total national gas production.

According to the report, out of the 218.37BCF of gas supplied in March 2020, 120.73BCF was commercialised, consisting of 33.45BCF and 87.28BCF for the domestic and export market respectively.

It said 1,235.56mmscfd of gas was supplied to the domestic market and 3,817.40mmscfd of gas supplied to the export market for the month.

Similarly, it said 55.63 per cent of the average daily gas produced was commercialized, while the balance of 44.37 per cent was re-injected and used as Upstream fuel gas or flared.

Within the period under review, it noted a decrease in pipeline vandalism compared to February.

It said only 19 pipeline points were vandalized representing about 47 per cent decrease from the 32 points recorded in February 2020.

'Atlas Cove-Mosimi accounted for 53 per cent, while Mosimi-Ibadan recorded 21 per cent and Suleja-Minna accounted for the remaining 26 per cent,' it said.

The NNPC, however, assured that it, in collaboration with local communities and other stakeholders, would continuously strive to reduce the menace to the barest level.

© Pakistan Press International, source Asianet-Pakistan