Nigeria’s state oil company loses ₦6.79bn to vandalism, crude inventories in one month
Bukola Odufade is Businessamlive Reporter.
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Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has reported a trading deficit of ₦6.79 billion for its operations in November 2017, higher than the previous month’s deficit of ₦6.39 billion.
According to the November financial report, the drop in revenue performance was attributed to increased cost in upstream activities and reduced revenue in the downstream value chain occasioned by the vandalism of its pipelines and depots.
Also, high crude oil inventory in refineries due to unplanned operational shutdown of Kaduna Refining & Petrochemical Company (KRPC) and Port Harcourt Refining Company Limited (PHRC), which led to increased loss from the refineries, were responsible for the higher trading deficit.
The group posted a sales report of $239.10 million from the export of crude oil and gas, with crude oil amounting to $147.39 million, while gas and miscellaneous receipts were at $50.17 million and $3.55 million respectively.
Ndu Ughamadu, group general manager, public affairs division of NNPC, said in a statement on Wednesday in Abuja,“ that of the export receipts, $121.75 million was remitted to federation account, while $56.56 million was remitted to fund the joint venture cost recovery for November, 2017 to guarantee current and future production.”
The corporation also added that the resuscitation of some of its critical pipelines and depots were of the highest priority and it was currently exploring possible partnership with Unibio A/S Limited, a Danish company, in the production of animal feeds through conversion of methane gas into protein.
The report mentioned a joint venture between NNPC and the Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) on the Okpai Phase II Independent Power Project (IPP), which is expected to generate additional 480 megawatts (MW) to the national grid.