By Chisaa Okoye
In line with its avowed commitment to transparency and accountability, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), recently released the December 2020 edition of its Monthly Financial and Operations Report (MFOR).
Mele Kolo Kyari, the Group Managing Director (GMD), on assumption of office in July 2019, made a solemnly promise – to run the affairs of the Corporation in strict adherence to twin principles of transparency and accountability.
Prio to his appointment about 20 months ago, the NNPC was widely criticised for its opacity as its financial statements and other dealings were shrouded in secrecy.
Not only that Kyari has entrenched a new era of transparency and accountability in the Corporation, he has in his almost two years at the helm of the National Oil company, put in place various policies and strategies to actualised his TAPE (Transparency, Accountability and Performance Excellence) initiative, a corporate vision he launched shortly after he took on the mantle of GMD in NNPC.
Stakeholders in the industry say the GMD is not only open and honest, he is straightforward about NNPC’s operations.
“When something goes wrong, he doesn’t hide it. When the Corporation makes profit, he makes it public, when it makes gains, he also publicises it”.
Without a doubt, the Corporation, under Kyari’s watch has continued to sustain effective communication with stakeholders through the MFOR which it publishes on the national dailies, its website as well as various online news portals.
Besides, Kyari’s NNPC publicises contracts awards processes, financial reports, FAAC monthly reports that reveals how much the Corporation transfers to the various states from oil and gas sales including royalty and tax payments, away from the old style of underhand dealings.
His transparent leadership has earned the hitherto corruption-ridden and widely criticised NNPC a lot of acclodes from the oil and gas industry, the media and other organisations.
Recently, the NNPC was named an EITI-partner company, a feat that has never been achieved in the history of Nigeria’s oil and gas sector.
In line with its resolve to be transparent in all its activities, the NNPC, recently released the December 2020 edition of its MFOR. Below are the highlights.
Robust Trading Surplus
The December 2020 edition of the MFOR, which was contained in a release by the indefatigable Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of the Corporation, Dr. Kennie Obateru, showed an increase of 80.12% in trading surplus for the month of December 2020 which stands at ₦24.19billion compared to the ₦13.43billion surplus recorded in November 2020.
The trading surplus or trading deficit, the statement explained, is derived after deduction of the expenditure profile from the revenue in the period under rereview.
The NNPC said its operating revenue in December 2020, as compared to November 2020, rose by 33.44% or N137.00billion to stand at N546.65billion.
Similarly, expenditure for the month increased by 27.54% or N112.81billion to stand at N522.47billion. The December 2020, expenditure as a proportion of revenue is 0.96 as against 0.97 in November 2020.
The report also indicated that the 80.12% increase was due mainly to the significant rise in the profit of NNPC’s flagship Upstream entity, the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) amid improved market fundamentals and strong global demand for crude oil.
Other factors that contributed to the robust trading surplus recorded in December, according to Obateru included the improved performance by the Nigerian Gas Marketing Company (NGMC), the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC), the National Engineering and Technical Company (NETCO) and Duke Oil Incorporated, which recorded noticeable gains in their operations.
Petroleum Products Sales
According to the MFOR, in the Downstream sector, 2.26billion litres of white products were sold and distributed by PPMC in the month of December 2020 compared to 1.72billion litres in the month of November 2020.
This comprised 2.254billion litres of petrol, translating to 72.72million litres/day, 11.40 million litres of Automotive Gas Oil (diesel) and 0.48 million litres of kerosene.
Total sale of white products for the period of December 2019 to December 2020 stood at 18.456billion litres and petrol accounted for 18.325billion litres or 99.29%.
The Corporation said that in monetary terms, the volume translates to a value of ₦288.77billion recorded on the sale of white products by PPMC in the month of December 2020 compared to ₦226.08 billion sales in November 2020.
Total revenues generated from the sales of white products for the period December 2019 to December 2020 stood at ₦2.217triilion, where petrol contributed about 99.09% of the total sales with a value of ₦2.197trillion.
Pipeline Vandalism
The Corporation, in the review month, recorded 43 vandalised pipeline points, representing about 18.60% increase from the 35 points recorded in November 2020. Mosimi Area accounted for 56% of the vandalized points while Kaduna Area and Port Harcourt accounted for the remaining 33% and 12% respectively.
Gas Production
In the Gas Sector, natural gas production in December 2020 stood at 213.34billion Cubic Feet (BCF) translating to an average daily production of 6,881.83million standard cubic feet of gas per day (mmscfd).
According to the release, the daily average natural gas supply to power plants increased by 3.52% to 816mmscfd, equivalent to power generation of 3,445MW.
Out of the 208.61BCF of gas supplied in December 2020, a total of 146.72BCF was commercialized; consisting of 42.90BCF and 103.82BCF for the domestic and export market respectively.
This, it said translated to a total supply of 1,383.93mmscfd of gas to the domestic market and 3,349.00mmscfd of gas supplied to the export market for the month.
This implies that 70.33% of the average daily gas produced was commercialized while the balance of 29.67% was re-injected, used as upstream fuel gas or flared. Gas flare rate was 6.80% for the month under review (i.e. 457.25 mmscfd) compared to average gas flare rate of 7.15% (i.e. 538.59 mmscfd) for the period December 2019 to December 2020.