NNPC records trading deficit of N9.53bn in March

As the global oil market reels under the impact of low price regime and production cost agreed upon by OPEC and OPEC+ members, Nigeria’s national oil company, , said it recorded an operational loss of N9.53bnin March 2020.

The loss reverses the steady growth trajectory of the corporation’s revenue since the last quarter of 2019.

An analysis of various monthly operational reports of the corporation showed that in November and December 2018, the firm made trading surpluses of N2.06bn and N12.13bn respectively.

It sustained this in 2019, as it posted N15.04bn, N16.72bn, N11.72bn, N5.6bn, N6.33bn and N3.92bn surpluses in the months of January, February, March, April, May and June respectively.

For July, August, September, October, November and December 2019, the corporation made surpluses of N4.26bn, N5.2bn, N8.59bn, N13.23bn, N3.95bn and N5.28bn respectively.

The oil firm’s surpluses persisted in January and February 2020 as it recorded N1.87bn and N3.95bn respectively.

The oil firm declared that the over 300 per cent decline in March earnings was due to the huge decrease of 181 per cent in the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company’s revenue.

The NNPC said it made a total crude oil and gas export sale of $256.19m in March 2020, which decreased by 30.89 per cent, compared to the previous month’s figure.