The immediate changes following the commencement of the Buhari-led administration birthed the popular saying: “the fear of Buhari.” Subsequently, this may have just prompted the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to finally release its first annual statement since 2005.
Since the beginning of the new administration, the NNPC has posted monthly updates of its financial status on its official twitter page. However this took another form when the company published a 38-page 2015 full year report on its official website.
NNPC’s transparency comes amidst other initiatives to reform the oil sector following large scale mismanagement of funds and fraudulent activities under the previous administration. For instance, the NNPC cancelled opaque “swap” deals through which crude cargo was exchanged for refined imports without changing hands. The release of the NNPC report affirms a step in the right direction for the company.
Here are major highlights of the NNPC’s report:
1. NNPC suffered a whopping loss of N267 billion
According to the report, NNPC recorded a whopping loss of N267 billion through the year. Last year, three of the four state-owned refineries were closed for seven months due to maintenance and vandalism thus, posting a combined loss of N82 billion. The biggest contributor to the loss, however, was the company’s headquarters which posted a loss of N162.7 billion.
2. NNPC spent N307bn on subsidy in 2015
According to the NNPC’s Monthly Financial and Operations Report for December 2015, the subsidy experienced a dip in the amount transferred to the Federation Account, which dropped to N1.02 trillion.
In a six month period from January to June, the NNPC spent N15.35 billion, N11.175 billion, N31.06 billion, N30.01 billion, N53.05 billion and N18.928 billion, respectively on subsidy. From July to December 2015, it spent N35.95 billion, N35.51 billion, N18.11 billion, N27.66 billion, N16.5 billion and N13.62 billion respectively.
3. Amount remitted into the Federation Account (dollars and Naira)
The NNPC transferred a total of $607.8 million into the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC), last year, from sales of export oil and gas while a sum of N1,019.44 billion was paid into the Federation Account being domestic crude oil and gas, other receipts from January to December 2015.
Despite the commendation given to the NNPC for transparency in releasing its report after a decade, the report has drawn a lot of criticism from experts who believe the report failed to show the company’s operating expenses – a yardstick for measuring the efficiency of NNPC’s operations.
