The vandalism of pipelines used to convey petroleum products increased by 77 per cent in June, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said.

The NNPC also said 1.76 billion litres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol. was supplied in June.

The corporation disclosed this in its Monthly Financial and Operation Report (MFOR) for the month of June released in Abuja, on Sunday.

It said that the quantity of petrol supplied translated to 58.65 million litres/day effectively distributed.

It noted that to sustain the supply and distribution of the products in the downstream sector, the NNPC had continued to monitor the daily stock of PMS across the nation.

Pipeline Vandalism

On pipeline vandalisim, the report revealed that there was 77 per cent rise in cases of oil pipeline vandalism in its network of pipeline infrastructure across the country in the month under review.

According to the report, 106 pipeline points were breached, representing an increase from the 60 points vandalized in May 2019.

It further explained that the Aba-Enugu axis in the system 2E pipeline corridor accounted for 25 per cent of the total pulverized points, while the Lagos Atlas Cove-Mosimi axis of the system 2B had 23 per cent of the compromised pipeline points.

It noted that the Ibadan-Ilorin leg of the System 2B pipeline accounted for 18 per cent of affected lines, followed by the PHC-Aba section of the system 2E which was responsible for 13 per cent of the affected pipeline,.

“Other areas accounted for the remaining 21 per cent of cumulative line breaks,” it said.

It added that in spite of the wanton breaches of its critical pipeline network during the period, the corporation had ensured continuous fuel supply and effective distribution across the country during the month under review.

Gas Production

In the gas sub-sector, the report disclosed that 223.98 Billion Cubic Feet (BCF) of natural gas was produced in the month under review.

This, it said translated to an average daily production of 7,466.09 million Standard Cubic Feet Per Day (mmscfd).

“The figure posted a slight increase of 0.11 per cent compared with the previous month’s gas production.

“For the period June 2018 to June 2019, a total of 3,063.89BCF of gas was produced representing an average daily production of 7,873.58mmscfd during the period.

“Period-to-date Production from Joint Ventures (JVs), Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) and NPDC contributed about 68.93 per cent, 21.34 per cent and 9.74 per cent respectively, to the total national gas production,” it said.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the June 2019 MFOR was the 47th in the series.

The monthly report is part of the corporation’s strategies to open its operations, activities and finances to the public.

(NAN)