THE Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has, declared N18.89 billion loss in the month of March.
This was contained in the corporation’s monthly financial and operations report posted on its website.
The report indicated that the N18.89 billion loss was 22.03 percent lower than the N24.23 billion operational deficit in the month of February.
The loss, the corporation explained, was as a result of the decline in operating expenses and marginal increase in revenue of the NNPC.
The report also said the reduction was largely driven by improved petroleum products sales and better cost control measures put in place by its downstream arm, the Pipelines and Product Marketing Company (PPMC).
There was also a major slump in export sales due largely to shut-in of about 300,000 barrels crude oil at Forcados Terminal following Force majeure declared by Shell on February 15, 2016.
“Production shut–in occasioned by vandalism of Forcados Export Line has continued to drag NNPC’s performance. This situation denied NPDC the opportunity to earn revenue from crude oil sales of about 20 billion which would have finally placed NNPC on good profitable footing.
“The sabotage also affected the Federation Equity Revenue,” the report said. The Corporation’s operating revenue for the month of March was 104.80 billion while operating expenditure for the same period was 126.72 billion.
“Operating deficit of N18.89 billion was recorded for the month of March 2016 as against monthly budgeted surplus of N44.23 billion,” the report noted.
The data also showed that total oil export proceeds of $170.12 million was recorded in March with proceeds from crude oil export sales amounting to $98.31 million or 57.79 percent compared with 63.12 percent contribution in previous month.
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu had, last year declared that the corporation would continue to make public, all its transactions to Nigerians.