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.