The group total loss of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation at the end of the 2016 financial year was N197.49bn.
Latest data released on Thursday by the national oil firm showed that the corporation earned a group total revenue of N1.726tn, but recorded an expense of N1.923tn last year.
The refineries incurred the largest loss during the review period, as the sub-total loss posted by the plants last year was N77.84bn.
During the year under review, the refineries in Warri, Port Harcourt and Kaduna recorded a total expense of N78.95bn.
They, however, did not earn much as their 12-month revenue was put at N1.11bn.
The corporation posted a loss of N17.01bn in December 2016, down from the N18.72bn recorded in November.
The NNPC stated that it had been operating in challenging situations, which limited its aspiration to profitability, adding that this was why it posted a trading deficit of N17.01bn in December last year.
The oil firm added, “This represents a decrease of N1.71bn in trading deficit as against November 2016. The marginal decrease is due to improved PPMC (Pipelines and Product Marketing Company) coastal sales following the completion of reconciliation with other marketers.
“Other factors that affected the overall NNPC’s performance include the force majeure declared by SPDC (Shell Petroleum Development Company) as a result of the vandalised 48-inch Forcados export line after the restoration on October 17, 2016, among others.”
It stated that in November, crude oil production inched up to 1.92 million barrels per day, which represented 7.77 per cent increase relative to October’s production, but lagged behind November 2015’s performance by 12.04 per cent.
“The month’s performance is attributed to the Federal Government’s overtures to Niger Delta militants towards providing a lasting peace to the crisis. However, some of the major drag to our performance includes the subsisting force majeure at the Forcados and Brass terminals, and shutdown of two NCTL flow stations following pipeline leakages,” it said.
The corporation noted that areas that were much affected by the militant activities were the onshore and shallow water assets, where government’s stake was high, adding that securing onshore and shallow water locations remained a priority to restore production.
It said pipeline sabotage in the country had continued to reduce due to the Federal Government and the NNPC’s sustained engagements with the stakeholders.
“Only 18 downstream pipeline vandalised points were recorded in the month as against 43 in November 2016. This also represents 69.77 per cent reduction relative to the previous month,” it added.
It further noted that the downstream sector, in spite of liberalisation of petroleum products and government intervention to ease marketers’ access to foreign exchange, the NNPC had remained the major importer of petroleum products, especially petrol.
