NNPC loses N120bn in two months

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation incurred a total loss of N120.07bn in the months of August and September, the latest NNPC Group financial report has shown.

According to the report, the corporation incurred losses of N60.67bn and N59.4bn in August and September, respectively.

It specifically stated that the national oil firm’s revenue in August was N146.617bn, while its expenses were put at N207.287bn.

In September, the corporation’s total expenses were N171.914bn, while its revenue for the same month was N112.514bn.

An analysis of the report showed that the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company, a subsidiary of the NNPC, incurred the highest amount of losses in the two months under review.

The report noted that the losses were incurred before subsidy, stating that the PPMC recorded a loss of N34.275bn in August and N57.677bn in September.

It also showed that all government-owned refineries managed by the NNPC were still not making profit, despite claims that the facilities had started producing refined products for public consumption.

In August, the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company, Port Harcourt Refining Company and Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company made a total loss of N6.575bn, while they recorded a loss of N11.381bn in September.

The capacity utilisation of the WRPC and KPRC in September 2015, according to the report, was zero per cent, as both plants processed no crude oil in the month.

The report, however, noted that the capacity utilisation of the PHRC was 4.15 per cent as the facility processed 35,648 metric tonnes of crude oil.

The Group Managing Director, NNPC, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, had stated during his screening as a minister by the Senate recently that non-performing refineries would be shut down at the expiration of a 90-day performance deadline given them by the oil firm.

The ultimatum was given to the respective management of the refineries by the GMD in September, mandating the plants to commence full production before the expiration of the deadline.

The GMD had stated that he had a mandate to get the refineries running by December.

Kachikwu had said, “What I have clearly as a mandate will be that at the end of December when the 90 days is up, we will sit down and say which one of the refineries has shown the capacity to consistently perform at levels that make optimum sense.

“And those ones we will let to continue. We will look at management issues and tidy them up and procurement issues and tidy them up as well. But those that are not, we will have to shut down and do complete maintenance.

“I’ve given a 90-day programme, which is working, and I’m glad that over the last few weeks, Port Harcourt, for example, has come out of the albatross and is producing right now at about 67 per cent capacity. Our target is to grow Port Harcourt to about 70 to 75 per cent capacity by the end of the year. Warri is beginning to signal that there is a likelihood that it will come on stream.

“If any refinery produces below 60 per cent, then it is not production. Because the performance capacities of refineries worldwide are in the 90 per cent and above categories, and that is when you begin to make yields. That is when it can be said to be a profitable refinery.”