A report from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) which covers the period – November 2019 to November 2020, showed that the gas sector saw a marginal decline by 3% to 3,004.06 Billion Cubic Feet (BCF) in one year.

During the period under review, a total of 3,004.06 BCF of gas was produced, which represents an average daily production of 7,642.69 Million Standard Cubic Feet per Day (mmscfd).

This decline comes at a period when the Federal Government of Nigeria is dedicating its resources to improve the utilisation of gas in the country. In comparison to previous years’ production, for the period November 2018 to 2019, a total of 3,091.24 BCF of gas was produced, which represents an average daily production of 7,882.27 mmscfd.

Also, in November 2020, gas production decreased by 3.86% at 222.34 BCF compared to the output in October 2020, which represents an average daily production of 7,114.52 mmscfd.

Period-to-date Production from Joint Ventures (JVs), Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs), and a subsidiary of the NNPC, the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), contributed about 67.29%, 19.97% and 12.74% respectively to the total national gas production.

The daily average natural gas supply to gas power plants increased by 5.21% to 789 mmscfd, which is equivalent to power generation of 3,358 MW. Out of 219.67 BCF of gas supplied in November 2020, a total of 137.41 BCF of gas was commercialised; consisting of 39.99 BCF and 97.42 BCF for the domestic and export market respectively.

Reacting to the decline, the spokesman of the National Oil Company, Dr Kennie Obateru, said the drop is because of Nigeria’s adherence to the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC) quota system.

Excerpts from the report: “Nigeria was being accused of not adhering to OPEC quota system, but over time, we have paid back what we over-supplied, and as at last week, OPEC alluded to the fact that Nigeria has now fully complied.”

“Out of the 1,332.82 mmscfd of gas supplied to the domestic market in November 2020, about 788.64 mmscfd of gas representing 59.17% was supplied to Gas-Fired power plants while the balance of 544.18 mmscfd or 40.83% was supplied to other industries.”

“Similarly, for the period of November 2019 to November 2020 an average of 1,214.27 mmscfd of gas was supplied to the domestic market comprising an average of 711.42 mmscfd or (58.59%) as gas supply to the power plants and 502.86 mmscfd or (41.41%) as gas supply to industries.”