The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has made trading profit of N250bn in 2016, according to the corporation’s quarterly publication.
Speaking on the development, Group Executive Director, Finance and Accounts of the NNPC Isiaka Abdulrazak noted that his office inherited 65 un-audited financial statements between 2011 and 2014.
According to Abdulrazak, a Project Steering Committee headed by him was set up to meet with auditors and other stakeholders to identify the challenges and resolve it.
He added that this figure was up from a deficit of N123 billion in 2015.
“In August 2015, when the present management of the Finance and Accounts Directorate took over the mantle of leadership, we inherited a total of 65 unaudited financial statements for NNPC corporate and its subsidiaries covering 2011 to 2014,” he said in Abuja on Tuesday.
“The major elements consist of a review of the Group Audited Financial Statements, particularly for 2016 reveals a positive shift to a trading profit of N250 billion from a trading deficit of N123 billion in 2015, indicating a 300 per cent improvement in trading performance.
“This is despite the decline in the average price of crude oil to as low as 345 dollars per barrel in 2016, compared to 51 dollars in 2015, and 110 dollars in 2014.
“For example, we have discontinued sub-commercial business arrangements such as offshore processing arrangements, disadvantaged crude for product exchange swap and poorly-managed strategic alliances.
“To improve revenues, there have been a number of new initiatives such as the introduction of Direct Sale Direct Purchase, a 20-25 per cent cut on all commercial contracts among others.
“Also, revenue analysis shows a 10 per cent increase from N2 trillion to N2.3 trillion between 2015 and 2016.
“Further analysis shows a 75 per cent increase in petroleum product sales from N820 billion to N1.4 trillion, attributable to the partial deregulation of petrol price.”