Barely five months after publishing its 2018 Audited Financial Statement, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has released its 2019 Audited Financial Statement with a 99.7% reduction in its loss profile from ₦803 billion in 2018 to ₦1.7 billion in 2019 saying that ANOH Gas Projects is to produce 600MSCFD equivalent of 2.4GW of electricity. A statement by the Corporation’s spokesman, Dr. Kennie Obateru, quoted the NNPC Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Mr. Umar Ajiya, as saying that the 2019 Audited Financial Statement, which was concluded five months after the release of the 2018 Audited Financial Statement, will be published on the Corporation’s website for all to see in keeping with Management’s commitment to transparency and accountability and in consonance with the principles of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) of which it is a partner. Giving further insight into the 2019 AFS, the CFO disclosed that general administrative expenses also witnessed a 22% dip from ₦894bn in 2018 to ₦696bn in 2019.
According to Ajiya, majority of the subsidiaries posted improved performance namely, the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company Limited (NPDC) which recorded ₦479Billion profit in 2019 compared to ₦179Billion in 2018 representing 167% increase; the Integrated Data Sciences Limited (IDSL) recorded ₦23Billion profit in 2019 compared to ₦154Million in 2018 representing 14966% increase; the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC) recorded ₦14.2Billion profit in 2019 compared to ₦9.3Billion in 2018 representing 52% increase; while the Refineries have maintained the same level of losses as in 2018 but which will reduce significantly in 2020 due to cost optimisation drive.
The CFO explained that the improved performance in the 2019 financial year was driven mainly by cost optimisation, contracts renegotiation and operational efficiency. He said “the 2019 AFS goes further to demonstrate our unwavering commitment to the principle of Transparency, Accountability and Performance Excellence (TAPE) while the outlook for 2020 looks promising in view of the Management’s strong drive to prune down running cost and grow revenues.”
It would be recalled that the Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mallam Mele Kyari, had promised to sustain the publication of the Corporation’s Audited Financial Statement as part of efforts to deepen transparency and accountability and keep stakeholders abreast of NNPC operations.
Meanwhile the NNPC says ANOH Gas Projects is to Produce 600MSCFD Equivalent of 2.4GW of Electricity. As part of concerted efforts to ramp up gas-to-industries and gas-to-power in the country, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has revealed that the Asa North-Ohaji South (ANOH) gas project, one of the largest green field gas condensate development projects ever undertaken in Nigeria, was expected to produce 600million standard cubic feet of gas per day, an equivalent of approximately 2.4gigawatts of electricity for the country. Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mallam Mele Kyari, made this known while delivering a goodwill message at the 2020 South East Gas Utilisation Forum in Owerri, Imo State. In a press statement by the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of the Corporation, Dr. Kennie Obateru, Mallam Kyari was said to have commended the imminent completion of the landmark Obiafu-Obrikom-Oben “OB3” gas pipeline project which would help commercialize over 2billion cubic feet of gas per day and generate billions in revenue as well as create thousands of employment opportunities for Nigerians.
Mallam Kyari, who was represented at the occasion by the Corporation’s Chief Operating Officer, Gas and Power, Engr. Yusuf Usman, said “NNPC as an enabler organisation has since realised the obvious economic importance of gas and has consistently made concerted efforts towards delivering the right infrastructure and commercial structures, in a bid to deliver value to customers and all stakeholders,”.
He stated that the laudable initiative of the Gas Aggregation Company of Nigeria (GACN) aimed at facilitating the optimal use of natural gas to drive industrial and economic growth aligns completely with President Muhammadu Buhari’s aspirations of prioritising gas development for economic growth, power generation and the eventual industrialisation of Nigeria. In his keynote address, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, stated that the best way to diversify Nigeria’s economy would be by driving the development and utilisation of the nation’s abundant gas resources, describing the South East as a region where an industrial miracle was about to happen.