By Ngozi Onyeakusi

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Monday dclosed that it has recorded a trading surplus to the tune of N18.12bn for May 2018.

The is performance is relatively higher than the N17.16bn recorded in the preceding month.

It disclosed this in the May edition of its monthly financial and operations report, adding that the rise in its trading surplus was due to increased performance of some of its subsidiaries.

It outlined the subsidiaries as the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, Petroleum Products Marketing Company, Nigerian Pipelines and Storage Company and Marine Logistics.

The report stated that the increase in performance was bolstered by the relatively high crude oil production volumes of 1.97 million barrels per day in April, which were sold in May, thereby reducing the cost per unit.

Under the national crude oil and natural gas production, lifting and utilisation segment, the report noted that 58.96 million barrels of crude oil and condensate were produced in April, representing an average daily production of 1.97 million barrels.

This represents 1.02 per cent increase, compared to the preceding month.

A breakdown of the production figure indicated that Joint Ventures and Production Sharing Contracts contributed about 32.82 per cent and 41.77 per cent, respectively; while alternative financing, the NPDC and independents accounted for 14.68 per cent, 7.65 per cent and 3.08 per cent, respectively.

was also indicated that the NPDC’s cumulative production from all fields within the period amounted to 47,759,229 barrels of crude oil, which translated to an average daily production of 120,909bpd.

In terms of national gas production, the report stated that 231.59 billion cubic feet of natural gas was produced in May 2018, translating to an average daily production of 7,785.01 million standard cubic feet per day.

In the downstream sub-sector, the report stated that in May, a total of 1.19 billion litres of petrol was supplied by the NNPC, translating to 40.59 million litres per day.

The national oil firm stated that it continued to monitor petrol evacuation figures from depots across the country in the month under review, adding that it engaged, where necessary, the Nigeria Customs Service and other stakeholders through the existing Joint Monitoring Team.