The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, says efforts by the Federal Government to boost power generation may soon yield results following a sustained increase in gas supply for power generation.

The corporation said this in its March 2017 edition of the Monthly Financial and Operations Report released on Saturday in Abuja.

The report said the average national daily gas production for the period stood at 226.918 billion cubic feet, bcf, which translates to over 7.319 million standard cubic feet of gas per day mmscfd.

This means that the daily average national gas supply to gas power plants increased to 689 mmscfd or the equivalent to power generation of 3,056 megawatts.

The Report also said the March 2017 figure was an improvement on the previous month’s record, which stood at 582 mmscfd and the supply was also over 29 per cent higher than the corresponding supply record for March 2016.

It, however, said pipeline sabotage in the country increased from 49 downstream pipelines vandalized points in February 2017 to 94 in March 2017.

“This represents over 91 per cent increase relative to the previous months despite Federal Government’s and the NNPC’s continuous engagement with the stakeholders.

“Nevertheless, there is a noticeable improvement compared to corresponding period of March 2016 which posted 259 cases,” the report stated.

The report further revealed that in the downstream sector, NNPC had in stock, an inland supply of over 1.2billion litres of petrol sufficient for more than 34 days forward consumption.

Also, it said NNPC continued to import Automotive Gas Oil, AGO, and Aviation Turbine Kerosene, ATK to supplement AGO local refining while the Central Bank had released foreign exchange to marketers to import both products.

The report noted that the inaugurated 497.2 km System 2B petroleum pipeline network which was achieved within the period under review had helped the NNPC.

It said NNPC had helped to sustain the gale of uninterrupted supply and distribution of products throughout the country.

“Only recently the NNPC Group Managing Director, Dr Maikanti Baru, noted that the Corporation’s re-commissioned Mosimi and Kano depots had impacted positively on highways across the Country.”

“Baru had stated that the two depots had relieved the impacts of long haulage of petroleum products on the roads.”

“Saving the nation serious environmental consequences of bridging to motorists, settlements along highways and the general ecosystem in the country,’’it said.

The March 2017 NNPC monthly Financial and Operations Report is the 20th edition.