In continuation its resolve to be transparent in the management of the nation’s oil industry assets, management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), on Sunday released its monthly oil and gas report for March with a deficit of N5.622bn, better than previous month’s N14.12bn.
Deficit financials in the month raised first quarter actual deficit to N33.996bn, with first quarter revenue and expenses of N928.294bn and N962.29bn.
Revenue for March stood at N354.571bn, up from N318.294bn in the month of February, while expenses jumped from N332.414bn to N360.192bn.
The first quarter figures were a far cry from the 2017 budget projected surplus of N83.512bn in the first three months of the year, considering the target N712.612bn, compared with expenses valued at N629.1bn.
According to data released by the corporation, in the 2017 first quarter, the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company recorded a surplus of N37.174bn, as against a N50.192bn surplus projected in the year’s budget. Revenue for the period stood at N77.505bn, slightly better than the budget target, as against the N40.331bn expense, almost double the N26.036bn budget projection for the quarter.
The special business unit, which also encompasses subsidiaries like IDSL, NETCO, NGNGPTC recorded a total of N50.044bn surplus, considering a revenue of N141.523bn and expense for the period of N91.479bn. This was lower than the budget projected surplus of N73.773bn from N131.726bn revenue and N57.773bn expense.
According to the report also, of the nation’s three refineries, only the Port Harcourt Refinery remained profitable for the period, with a surplus of N12.04bn, slightly below the target of N16.221bn; as revenue stood at N119.547bn, as against an expense of N107.508bn. The 2017 budget now awaiting President assent had estimated modest revenue of N64.356bn, expense of N48.402bn, which would have translated to a surplus of N16.221bn. The budget projected a surplus of N6.704bn for the Warri Refinery from revenue of N32.581bn and expense of N25.877bn, but the company suffer a deficit of N3.386bn as revenue stood at N36.813bn and operating cost- N40.198bn.
The Kaduna Refinery however fared better in terms of projection to actual figures, as it recorded a deficit of N2.421bn, better than the N3.089bn projected, actual revenue stood at N64.164bn, far better than the N15.304bn projected; just as expense stood at N66.585bn, also a far cry from the N18.402bn projected in the 2017 budget. Helped by the performance of the Port Harcourt Refinery, the business unit recorded a Q1 surplus of N6.233bn from revenue of N220.524bn and N214.291bn cost, compared with the projected surplus of N19.827bn from the revenue of N112.241bn and expense of N92.414bn.
Also, the NNPC report that while capacity utilization of the Warri Refinery was 0% in March, from 4.7% in the preceding month; that of Port Harcourt Refinery was 12.9%, a significant drop from 40.7% a month earlier; while Kaduna Refinery had 29.7% capacity utilization, compared with 34.4% a month earlier.
The group’s petroleum products retailing arm reported a surplus of N1.999bn, far from the expected N12.98bn contained in the 2017 budget projection. Revenue for the period stood at N66.136bn as against the projected N69.111bn; while expense for the period was N64.137bn, which was higher than the N56.131bn forecast for the period.
NPMC/NPSC suffered a deficit of N52.001bn, at a time the budget had expected a surplus of N19.967bn, while revenue stood at N500.086bn, as against the projected N396.563bn; just as expense grew to N552.087bn, much more than the N376.597bn forecast for the period. This left a deficit of N50.001bn , as against the N32.947bn forecast budget surplus; as expense rose to N616.224bn, much more than the N432.727bn projection, higher than the revenue of N566.222bn, higher than the target N465.674bn.
The NNPC Group also reported that in the one-year between March 2016 and 2017, it remitted a total of N1.413tr to the federation account; just 228.319m barrels of crude oil was lifted on behalf of the Federal Government, out of a total 703.475m barrels of oil that was fiscalised.
In the period also, 197bn cubic feet of gas was sent to power firms to generate an average of 2,284 megawatts from gas fired power plant, just as 12.56bn litres of premium motor spirit (PMS or petrol) was also supplied by the Petroleum Products Marketing Company in the one-year period.
A statement by Ndu Ughamadu, the corporation’s spokesman put average national daily gas production for the period at 226.918bn cubic feet, bcf, representing over 7.319m standard cubic feet of gas per day, mmscfd, just as the daily average national gas supply to gas power plants increased to 689mmscfd or the equivalent to power generation of 3056mw.