Vandalism of oil pipelines in the downstream sector of the petroleum industry recorded a drop of 12.77 per cent in April 2017, the monthly financial and operations report of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has showed.
According to the report, which was released in Abuja on Monday, downstream pipeline sabotage decreased from 94 vandalised points in March to 82 in April, representing a 12.77 per cent reduction relative to the previous month.
The April figures also indicated substantial progress compared to the corresponding period of 2016 in which 214 incidents were recorded.
In terms of products’ availability in the period, the corporation’s Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu, noted that the NNPC maintained a stock of over 1.2 billion litres of petrol, which was sufficient for more than 34 days’ forward consumption.
Ughamadu stated in a statement that during the period, the corporation received bids from no fewer than 37 companies to supply six triple agent firefighting trucks for the operation of the Nigerian Pipelines and Storage Company, a downstream subsidiary of the NNPC.
The April 2017 report noted that the NNPC continued to import Automotive Gas Oil or diesel, as well as Aviation Turbine Kerosene or aviation fuel, to supplement local refining, while the Central Bank of Nigeria had been making foreign exchange available to marketers to import AGO and ATK.
It further stated that the average national daily gas production stood at 242.32 billion cubic feet or an average of 8,077.19 million standard cubic feet per day, representing 6.79 per cent increase relative to the previous month.
Comparatively, the daily average natural gas supply to gas power plants slightly decreased to 672mmscfd, or equivalent to power generation of 2,787 MW in April, relative to 689mmscfd recorded last month.
However, the supply was also 22.85 per cent higher than the corresponding supply recorded in April 2016 of 547mmscfd, the report stated.