By Richards Adeniyi
The shambolic operational year Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) had in 2017 characterised by a crippling scarcity of petrol the country is yet to recover from has reflected in its financials with an operating loss of N82 billion recorded by the state oil company.
Figures from its latest group financial and operations report showed that its year-to-date expense as of December last year was N3.71 trillion, while its revenue was put at N3.79 trillion.
On the individual performance of the sub-units of the oil firm, the report stated that the corporation’s headquarters posted the highest loss in the year under review.
It lost N131.94 billion in 2017, followed by the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company, which posted a loss of N102.53 billion.
The Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) came first among the sub-units that recorded profit in 2017.
The NPDC made the highest profit as a sub-unit in the NNPC by recording N111.88 billion revenue during the review period.
The corporation as a group recorded a marginal decline in December 2017, as it posted a loss of N6.37 billion, as against the N6.79 billion deficit of the preceding month.
“This represents N0.42 billion decrease in trading deficit compared to the November 2017 performance. This is attributable to the decreased cost in upstream activities especially the NPDC.
“The value gained from the NPDC was however eroded by an increased PPMC operational cost in an effort to ensure steady petroleum products supply across the country being the major supplier of the products” the report stated.
On the refineries, the report stated that the combined capacity utilisation of the three facilities in Warri, Kaduna and Port Harcourt increased from 5.81 per cent to 26.99 per cent.
Data from the corporation’s latest report showed that the Warri refinery was dormant in December 2017, while those of Port Harcourt and Kaduna produced at 41.69 per cent and 29.59 per cent, respectively during the period.
Further findings showed that Warri, which recorded a capacity utilisation of 20.67 per cent in November 2017, dropped to zero in December.
For the Port Harcourt and the Kaduna refineries, their capacity utilisation in November 2017 was both zero per cent, according to the report.
The NNPC said it more than doubled the daily supply of the Premium Motor Spirit, popularly known as petrol, during the Yuletide season from about 35 million litres per day to 80 million litres per day to ensure product availability nationwide.