Following the drop in oil production, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, in April, lost N19.43 billion as the production capacity of the country plummeted from 59.27 million barrels in February to 57.43 million barrels in March.

The figures were contained in the latest financial and operations report released on Wednesday by the NNPC.

The corporation revealed that the decrease in oil production also affected the electricity sector as over 1,500 megawatts of electricity was lost due to the destruction of oil installations.

The energy company noted that the capacity utilisation of the Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company fell to 6.36 per cent in April from 25.65 per cent in March.

“The NNPC’s monthly financial and operations report indicate an operational loss of 19.43bn in April 2016 as against 18.89bn in the month of March 2016. The deficit increased by 2.83 per cent in the month of April 2016 due to slight decline in revenue generation, which is attributed to the decrease in petroleum product sales by 7.11 per cent.”

“The NPDC’s crude sale for the month is still hampered by Forcados pipeline vandalism, which continued to deny the NPDC of monthly crude oil revenue of about 20.0bn.”

NNPC further disclosed that the global price of crude increased by $3.41 per barrel in April to an average of $40.75 per barrel, rising from $37.34 in March and down from $57.54 in April 2015.

Nigeria also lost its top spot as the leading producer of crude oil in Africa.

“Nigerian crude oil production for the month of March 2016 stood at 57.43 million barrels, which is 3.1 per cent lower than February 2016 production, and so far, the lowest recorded in the 12-month review period. Recent upsurge in vandalism has negatively impacted on the Nigerian crude oil production output, losing its African top crude oil producer to Angola.”

“About 380,000 barrels per day remained shut-in due to vandalism of the 48-inch subsea export line on 15th of February, 2016. Hence, all March cargoes were deferred until the repair is completed. Also, the nation has lost over 1,500MW of power supply to the damage as gas supply from Forcados, which is Nigeria’s major artery, accounts for 40 to 50 per cent of gas production. Incessant pipeline vandalism poses the greatest threat to the industry.”

The oil firm, however, noted that its management was on top of the situation.

“For the first time, the NNPC was able to get the buy-in of the upstream companies operating in Nigeria to enhance domestic supply of refined petroleum products by indicating readiness to make available additional funding to support import of products.”

Mazi Emeka