The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd has declared a N674 billion profit after tax for 2021, rising by 134.8 per cent higher than the N287bn it recorded in 2020.
The Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC, Mele Kolo Kyari, who stated this on Tuesday at briefing in Abuja said, "Today I am happy to announce that the Board of NNPC Limited has approved 2021 audited financial statements, and NNPC has progressed to a new performance level, from 287bn naira profit in 2020 to a 674bn naira profit after tax in 2021, climbing higher by 134.8% year on year profit growth."
Kyari also said the profit was driven squarely by upstream activities including oil and gas and power.
"We have recorded significant improvement in our financial performance over the past three years, turning up the curve, from losses to profits."
He also noted that the profit could have been more if not for the crude oil theft with the industry losing about 200,000 barrels per day to the menace.
"The performance would have been greater if the operations in the year under review were free from incessant vandalism, crude oil and products theft among others."
The group's financial position recorded an increase in total assets from N15.86 trillion in 2020 to N16.27trn in 2021, while total liabilities decreased by 8.3% from N14.68trn in 2020 to N13.46trn in 2021. Shareholders fund position grew to N2.81trn represent 144% YoY
No dividends with old NNPC profit
Kyari clarified that although the profit was declared the 200m Nigerians would not get any dividends yet as the profit was for the 2021 financial year of the Nigerian National petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
He said, "Dividends are always governed by the policies of every company and the shareholders of this company is the country, and the 200 million people, represented by the Ministry of Petroleum Incorporated and the Ministry of Finance Incorporated in the case of the NNPC Limited. But for the corporation, it is a different consideration, the Federation now decides what to do with this; and currently, as you may be aware, you know, there's a huge delta between."
Oil production to rise by 400,000 shortly - Kyari
Kyari also said NNPC was intervening to tackle the oil theft, noting that additional 400,000 barrels may come on stream after restoring one of the shut pipelines.
"The interventions directly of NNPC in terms of monitoring and evaluation is going on and investment that we have done. We believe that in the next couple of days we'll be able to bring back the Trans Niger pipeline and also restore production back into the terminal. That way, we are sure that we can see at least 400,000 barrels come in on the space.
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"And as we continue to progress in security intervention we'll be able to bring back the other production facility, a number of things we're doing including alternative evacuation processes. I'm sure that if you wait the next two or three days you will see the impact coming on the table," stated Kyari.
Nigeria earns N11.5trn from 6-month crude export
Meanwhile, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has revealed that Nigeria earned N11.53trn from the export of crude oil in the first half of 2022.
This represents an 88.6% growth from the N6.11trn recorded in the first half of 2021.
NBS stated this in its Foreign Trade Statistics for the Second Quarter of 2022, released on its website.
While N5.621trn was exported in Q1, N5.908trn was exported in Q2. It was the most exported commodity, taking 79.77% of the entire export in six months.
Nigeria exported about N15trn worth of crude last year and there are indications from the N11trn earning already that the country could surpass the target, if issues of oil theft are tackled.
India led the major buyers list of Nigeria's oil followed by the Netherlands, Spain, Indonesia, the United States, Italy, Sweden, Canada, France, Ivory Coast, and Oceania.
