The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) lost revenue of N228.1bn between April and November 2018, a period of about seven months, as its refineries continued to perform poorly, the latest industry data revealed.
Figures obtained from the national oil firm in Abuja on Monday showed that the corporation’s revenue nosedived from the N520.4bn recorded in April 2018 to N292.3bn in November last year.
It was observed that the NNPC’s revenue grew from the N323.19bn recorded in January 2018 to the highest level of N520.4bn in April, but commenced a descent until it crashed to N292.3bn in November, which was the month with the most recent financial updates from the oil firm.
An analysis of the data from the sector showed that in the months of May, June, July, August, September and October last year, the NNPC’s revenues were N482.55bn, N401.53bn, N468.51bn, N309.37bn, N304.44bn and N373.08bn respectively.
It was further gathered that while the corporation’s revenue plummeted, its refineries did not help matters as they maintained a poor performance for the most part of last year.
From February to November last year, the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company did not refine a drop of crude oil.
The Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company and the Port Harcourt Refining Company were never stable in their capacity utilisations during the period.
For instance, in February, WRPC and PHRC posted capacity utilisations of 8.3 per cent and 24.6 per cent respectively. This fluctuated in the succeeding months and in June both refineries recorded 27 per cent and 27.7 per cent capacity utilisations respectively.
But their capacities crashed to zero per cent in September and October 2018, while in November, WRPC could only post a marginal capacity utilisation of 2.4 per cent, as PHRC remained dormant at zero per cent.
The poor performance of the refineries made them incur huge losses as Nigeria’s refineries posted a cumulative loss of N114.3bn in the first 11 months of 2018.
Figures obtained from the NNPC showed that the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company, Port Harcourt Refining Company and Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company made losses in the months under review.
The KRPC made a deficit of N31.62bn, PHRC recorded N44.2bn loss, while WRPC lost N38.5bn. All the losses were from January to November 2018.
The refineries under the management of the NNPC have been performing below standard over time, a development that made the Federal Government to search for international financiers to revamp the facilities, but this move has yet to succeed. – Punch.
