…Say there is a need for transparency, especially as it modus operand has changed
Oil and gas industry analysts have queried why the Nigerian National Petroleum Company NNPC failed to state the amount it spent on fuel importation during in last 12 months.
According to them, providing the amount generated alone without stating what was expended during the time under review on importation makes the whole exercise in-complete and may make investors and other stakeholders not take the organization seriously when it comes to the issue of transparency.
They argued that since the company would from July 1, 2022, become a fully Limited Liability Company whose operations will be fully run in compliance with the provisions of the Companies and Allied Matters Act of 2020, it behoves on it to be open about its books1
The budget estimates that are bandit around are not enough they stated, they said.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited in it monthly report claimed that it has raked in about N1.7trillion from crude oil sales in the last 12 months.
According to the Corporation’s monthly and financial report for August, the sum was earned from March 2020 to March 2021 after it lifted a total of 108 million barrels of crude oil within the year, at an average price of $43 per barrel.
A breakdown of the report showed that, in March 2020, the oil and gas firm lifted approximately 9, 490mn/b; 11, 437mn/b in April; 5, 113m/b in May; 6,274mb in June; and 8,546m/b in July.
In August, NNPC said, it lifted 8, 546mn/b; 8, 490mn/b in September; 10, 333mn/b in October; 9, 532mn/d in November; and 7, 539mn/b in December 2020.
In January 2021, it lifted 5, 542mn/b; 9, 397mn/b in February, and 7, 553mn/b in March 2021, making it a total of 108 million barrels for the period under review.
The crude, NNPC said, was lifted from the daily allocation for domestic utilization translating to an average volume of 243,650 barrels of oil per day in terms of performance.
Price fluctuations within the period ranged from $25/b in March 2020, to $17/b in April; $25/b in May; $40/b in June; $44/b in July; $55/b in August; $40/b in September; $40/b in October; $43/b in November; and $51/b in December 2020.
In January 2021, crude lifted was sold at $57/b; $64/b in February, and $64/b in March 2021.
In order to meet domestic product supply requirements, NNPC said, all the barrels were processed under the Direct-Sales-Direct Purchase(DSDP) scheme while no deliveries were made to the domestic refineries for processing.
The country’s official exchange rate during the period was around N400 to the dollar.
Going by an average of N400/$, the various average monthly costs of Brent and the monthly crude oil production figures as stated above, NNPC said it earned approximately N71bn in March; N69bn in April; N46bn in May; N90bn in June; N136bn in July; N170bn in August; N130bn in September; N158bn in October; N156bn in November; and N145bn in December 2020.
The NNPC earned N124bn in January 2021, N230bn in February, and N184bn in March 2021.
NNPC Limited put total revenue from sales at N1.7trn within the period under review.
Meanwhile, the corporation disclosed that it distributed 966.58 million liters of petrol across states in the country within a two weeks period covering May 16th and May 29, 2022.
This is even as Lagos State reportedly consumed about 149.33 million liters of Premium Motor Spirit(PMS) in two weeks, according to data released by NNPC Limited
According to data, Lagos, Kano and Niger States received the highest allocation.
Details of the distribution showed that 13 states had high demand and got 72 percent of the products distributed, 11 medium demand states got 21 percent of the product allocation while 12 states with the least demand got the balance of seven percent of the PMS allocation.
With the distribution, Lagos State which is the commercial capital of Nigeria and the fifth largest economy in Africa received the highest volume of PMS with 149.33 million litres.
The 149.33 million litres received by Lagos represents about 15.5 percent of the total distribution made by the NNPC to the federation.
The state was followed by Kano with 86.19 million litres, while Niger, Oyo, Ogun, Delta, Zamfara, Edo, Adamawa, Kwara, Rivers, Kaduna and Enugu were allocated 73.91 million, 59.05 million, 51.76 million, 45.86 million, 42.12 million, 34.66 million, 34.28 million, 31.25 million, 31.25 million, 26.07 million and 25.77 million litres of PMS in that order.
The distribution showed that states like Ondo with 9.6 million litres, Kebbi (8.04 million), Kogi (7.74 million litres), Taraba (7.25 million), Bayelsa (6.2 million) and Nasarawa (5.54 million) received the lowest volume of PMS from the NNPC.
Other states that received low volume due to their consumption pattern are Yobe with 4.9 million litres, Ebonyi (4.9 million), Katsina (4.59 million), Ekiti (4.4 million), Sokoto (4.16 million), Bauchi (2.48 million) and Jigawa (1.1 million) respectively.
Olusola Bello
