NNPC records N19.43 billion loss in April as oil production drops

THE Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation monthly financial and operations report indicate an operational loss of 19.43bn in April 2016 as against 18.89bn in the month of March 2016.

The deficit increased by 2.83 per cent in the month of April 2016 due to a slight decline in revenue generation, which is attributed to the decrease in petroleum product sales by 7.11 per cent.

The report also stated that its crude production also dropped from 59.27 million barrels recorded to 57.43 million barrels in March.

The corporation explained that global crude oil spot prices increased by $3.41 per barrel in April to a monthly average of $40.75 per barrel, up from $37.34 in March and down from $57.54 in April 2015.

This represented an increase of 9.13 percent from March 2016 and -29.18 per cent from April 2015, adding that the increase in the crude oil spot prices by $3.41 per barrel in April this year to a monthly average of $40.75 per barrel was the highest monthly average so far this year.

According to the report, “Nigerian crude oil production for the month of March 2016 stood at 57.43 million barrels, which is 3.1 percent lower than February 2016 production, and so far, the lowest recorded in the 12-month review period. The recent upsurge in vandalism has negatively impacted on the Nigerian crude oil production output, losing its African top crude oil producer to Angola.

“About 380,000barrels per day remained shut-in due to vandalism of the 48-inch subsea export line on 15th of February, 2016. Hence, all March cargoes were deferred until the repair is completed.

The NNPC, however, noted that its leadership was already diligently addressing the corporation’s key business and operational challenges.

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“For the first time, the NNPC was able to get the buy-in of the upstream companies operating in Nigeria to enhance the domestic supply of refined petroleum products by indicating readiness to make available additional funding to support import of products,” it said.

Furthermore, the NNPC disclosed that it paid N56.22 billion into the Federation Account in April this year.

According to the report, “NNPC transferred N56.22 billion to the Federation Account for the month of April being proceeds from a local sale of petroleum products.

“Thus, the sum of N933.12 billion has been paid to the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) from March 2015 to April 2016,” the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) quoted the corporation as saying in the report.

On crude oil sale for the month under review, it said that NNPC recorded export sale of 289.36 million dollars, adding that the sales were made in March, while the collection was made in April this year.

It added that despite the export sales, NNPC did not make any dollar remittance to the Federation Account in April.

It said crude oil export sales during the period amounted to 191.30 million dollars or 66.11 percent of the dollar transactions compared with 57.79 percent contribution in the previous month.

It added that export gas sales were 71.81 million dollars during the period.