In 2021, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) facilitated the lifting of a total of 14.23 million barrels of crude oil, valued at $999.71 million on behalf of various stakeholders.
This is according to the 2021 Oil and Gas Report from the Nigerian Extractives Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), published recently.
According to the NEITI report, on behalf of the Federation, NNPCL lifted and exported a substantial 24.84 million barrels of crude oil, amounting to an estimated $1.70 billion.
Out of this, $1.58 billion was successfully attributed to respective bank accounts as the actual sales receipt for the year.
Notably, $1.55 billion represents the sales receipts from 2021, while $24.32 million was allocated to settling receivables from prior years.
Domestic oil market
For the domestic market, NNPCL designated 98.92 million barrels of crude oil, valued at $7.11 billion (approximately N2.73 trillion). However, no crude was actually supplied to the local refineries during the year.
Instead, an overwhelming 95.25% of this crude was utilized for crude-to-product exchanges on the international market, employing the Direct Sale Direct Purchase (DSDP) arrangement. A smaller portion, 4.75%, was sold directly on the international market.
This situation primarily arose due to the lack of operational refineries throughout the year. The actual domestic crude sales receipts for the year amounted to N2.23 trillion (approximately $5.85 billion).
Of this, N1.64 trillion (approximately $4.30 billion) constituted the sales receipts from 2021, while the remaining N588.68 billion (approximately $1.55 billion) was allocated to the settlement of prior year receivables. As of December 2021, a substantial sum of N751.11 billion (approximately $1.94 billion) remained unpaid.
Conversely, an outstanding liability of N334.82 billion (approximately $871.15 million) was recorded as of December 31, 2021.
It’s important to highlight that a total deduction of N1.20 trillion (approximately $3.15 billion) was made from the domestic sales proceeds during 2021.
These deductions encompassed subsidy payments (N1.16 trillion), losses associated with crude and products (N16.20 billion), pipeline repairs and maintenance (N22.05 billion), and strategic stock holding (N6.75 billion).
Oil production
In terms of production, a total of 54 companies contributed to crude oil production, resulting in a metered production of 634.60 million barrels.
However, challenges such as production adjustments, measurement errors, and theft/sabotage accounted for a loss of 68.47 million barrels.
Consequently, the fiscalized production for the year stood at 566.13 million barrels, encompassing both crude oil and condensates.
It is essential to note that according to NEITI, the reconciled production data showed discrepancies when compared to the data publicly disclosed on the NUPRC website.
Overall, the fiscalized crude oil production for 2021 amounted to 566.13 million barrels, marking a 12% reduction from the previous year’s volume of 646.79 million barrels.
This production figure was the lowest in the last four years, with 2020 recording 647 million barrels, and 2019 reaching the highest at 735.24 million barrels.
Crude terminals Insights
Analyzing specific terminals, the Forcados terminal operated by Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) made the most significant contribution to total crude production in 2021, accounting for 12.56% with a production volume of 71,083.79 barrels.
This was closely followed by the Escravos terminal, contributing 10.43% with a production volume of 59,045.51 barrels.
Tupni’s Egina Terminal constituted 10.17% of the total production with 57,591.79 barrels. Other terminals, including Atan, Ebok, Okoro, Okono, Otakikpo, Okwori, Aje, Ajapa, and Ubima, individually contributed less than 1% each to the overall production.
