Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, has declared a profit after tax of N674 billion for the 2021 financial year, a growth of 134.8 percent compared to N287 billion declared in 2020.
Its total assets also grew from N15.86 trillion in 2020 to N16.27 trillion in 2022 while total liabilities fell by 8.3 percent to N13.46 in 2021 from N14.68 trillion in 2020.
Besides, the shareholders fund grew to N2.81 trillion representing 144 percent from the previous year.
NNPCL’s Group CEO, Mele Kyari said the growth in profit was driven by its upstream operation and its businesses in gas and power.
He explained that the performance would have been greater if the operations in the year under review were free from incessant vandalism, crude oil and product theft.
He noted that despite the challenging operating environment, NNPC has the potential to sustainable deliver better value to its shareholders.
Speaking on what will happen to the profit, he said: “Dividend is always governed by the dividend policy of every company. In this case, the shareholders is the country that includes 200 million Nigerians represented by the Ministry of Petroleum Incorporated and the Ministry of Finance Incorporated in the case of NNPC Limited but for the Corporation, the Federation will decide what to do with this and currently there is a huge data between the obligations of the NNPCL and that of the Corporation. We are sorting this out and it will be the decision of the shareholders to decide to either retain part of it or all of it”.
Mr. Kyari disclosed that all major oil trunk lines have been shut down due to the activities of oil thieves and pipeline vandals.
He added:“Today our production is around 1.23 million barrels per day. We have a proven production capacity of 2.49mbpd. But since Covid abated and the acts of vandals returned, we saw this gradual decline in our production of to the point of the 1.2mbpd.That means we can easily produce 2.49mbpd but we can do it because of acts of vandals. Now it doesn’t mean that the difference between 2.49m and 1.23m is stolen. As we speak, all our major trunk lines are shutdown, which means we are not flowing crude oil in these lines. We could do it and it doesn’t mean crude is stolen. When the lines are running, you can lose substantial part of that volume up to 200,000 barrels.
“In actual losses today, our budget level plan is to produce at 1.8mbpd and if you are doing 1.23m it means you are losing the difference between 1.23m and 1.8m which is around 600,000 barrels per day. This is an opportunity lost, not stolen”.