From Uche Usim, Abuja
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) yesterday disclosed it has recorded some improvement in gas supply, which would help boost electric power generation in the country.
The March 2017 edition of the monthly financial and operations report of the national oil company released yesterday in Abuja, indicated that the average national daily gas production for the period stood at 226.918 billion cubic feet, bcf, which translates to over 7.319 million standard cubic feet of gas per day, mmscfd.
However, the daily average national gas supply to gas power plants increased to 689mmscfd or the equivalent to power generation of 3056mw.
The March 2017 figure shows an improvement on the previous month’s record, which stood at 582 mmscfd. The supply is also over 29 per cent higher than the corresponding supply record for March 2016.
However, pipeline sabotage in the country increased from 49 downstream pipeline vandalised points in February 2017 to 94 in March 2017. This represents over 91 per cent increase relative to the previous months despite Federal Government’s and the NNPC’s continuous engagement with stakeholders. Nevertheless, there is a noticeable improvement compared to corresponding period of March 2016, which posted 259 cases.
Also, in the downstream sector, the report shows the NNPC has in stock inland supply of over 1.2 billion litres of petrol sufficient for more than 34 days forward consumption.