By Uche Amunike
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, has admitted to reaching the mark of their trading supplies for the month of April 2021 to the tune of N43.57bn.
According to the report which covered its financial and operations score card, the NNPC recorded a 23.64% increase as against the N35.24bn surplus it recorded in the month of March.
This brought the trading surplus to N43.57bn in the month of April.
Recall that the trading surplus or deficit, depending on what is arrived at, refers to the figure gotten after deducting the expenditure profile from the revenue for the period being reviewed.
The report showed that the NNPC group operating revenue in the month of April increased by 17.73% or N80.67bn to remain at N535.61bn. That is when compared to the revenue cutting in the month of March.
The NNPC Financial Officer, Umar Ajiya stated that the accepted publication of the monthly report is in tandem with the letters and spirit of the management philosophy of the NNPC Group Managing Director, Mele Kyari, which centres on Transparency, Accountability and Performance Excellence, TAPE.
Relatively, an increase of 17.24% or N72.34bn which stood at N492.05bn was recorded in expenditure, while it’s proportion in revenue remained 0.92 just as it did in the month of March.
The report also explained that over 40 pipelines were vandalized in April especially in Port Harcourt and Mosimi areas which formed part of the reason why they experienced a decrease of 34.29% as against the 70% recorded in March.
The report further stated that the increase in trading surplus was caused by the activities of NNPC’s upstream subsidiary called the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, NPDC, such as crude oil lifted from OML 119(Okono Okpoho) and OMLS 60, 61,62,63 (Nigeria Agip Oil Company, including a rise in gas sales.
Two other subsidiaries named Duke Oil and National Engineering and Technical Company Limited contributed to the large surplus that was realized.
In a bid to ensure that there is constant supply and effective distribution of fuel across the country, a total of N1.67bn litres of Premium Motor Spirit in the downstream sector were supplied in the month being reviewed.
Recall that a recent report on Nigeria’s moribund refineries put together by a geopolitical and socio-economic research firm, known as SBM Intelligence indicated that the NNPC lost a total of N473.3bn in operating moribund refineries between January 2015 and February 2021. Those refineries according to the report, are in Warri, Port Harcourt and Kaduna.
It also noted that the refineries have been unproductive since July 2017 despite the huge costs of maintaining them.
Not even one of the three refineries had produced even a drop of refined petrol since July 2019, generating over N185bn in losses.
Yet, according to the report, the Federal government continues to waste money in those areas.
In March, the Federal Executive Council approved $1.5bn for the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt refinery while $1.48bn was mapped out for Kaduna and Warri refineries.
