Even as power plants across the country continue to decry shortage of gas to power stations, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Tuesday announced that it had increased daily average natural gas supply to gas power plants by 123 per cent.
Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of the corporation, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu, in a statement in Abuja said the increase accrued to 730 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscf/d) in June 2017 as against 327mmscf/d in the corresponding period in 2016.
Details from the June 2017 Monthly Financial and Operations Report released yesterday, showed that gas supply to power plants increased slightly by 0.13 per cent from 729mmscf/d in May 2017 to 730mmscf/d in June 2017, but within the period, several power plant complained of poor supplies after all.
Additional report of the document also noted that remarkable stability in nationwide petroleum products supply.
NNPC noted further that the increase followed the performance of Nigeria’s three refineries which produced between five and six million litres of Premium Motor Spirit, also known as petrol, per day in June.
However, there seems to be some levels of confusion as few weeks ago, the same NNPC hinted that some of the oil refineries are performing below 15 per cent and may be considered for sale as scraps.
The statement said in parts: “The refineries also produced between five and six million litres of Automotive Gas Oil (AGO), also known as diesel, per day in the period under review.
“The corporation has maintained seamless nationwide supply and distribution of petroleum products which guarantee stable products and queue-free filling stations across the nation,” Ughamadu quoted the report.
According to him, “the performance of the Port Harcourt Refinery continued to improve with a boost to the midstream value chain as it inched toward sustained commercial operations”.
It would be recalled that the pump price of diesel crashed by 42 per cent nationwide, following interventions by the corporation in May.
On pipeline vandalism, Ughamadu said that the corporation recorded about 86 cases of pipeline breaks across the country in the period under review.
He said of the 86 cases, 77 were due to pipeline vandalism, representing almost 40 per cent increase relative to cases recorded in the previous month (May 2017).
NNPC further added that while the Port Harcourt-Aba line recorded the highest pipeline breaches of 55 points (66 per cent), there was also an unusual upsurge in the activities of vandals along Kaduna-Zaria.
The line, he said, witnessed 13 vandalised points during the period.
“There was also a slight decrease in national gas production, compared to previous month which stood at 227.15BCF or an average of 7,571.50 mmscfd, the report said.
“This was despite sustaining the success recorded by its enhanced crude oil evacuation and oil lifting in June 2017 following re-opening of Forcados Oil Terminal on March 31,” NNPC said.
