The NNPC as a corporation grew its profit after tax and assets from N287bn and N15.86tn in 2020, to N674bn and N16.3tn in 2021, respectively. This was made public by the Group Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Mele Kyari, on Tuesday.

Kyari, made this public at a press conference in Abuja, during which he said the 2021 profit was contained in the Group Audited Financial Statement of the oil firm for the year ended December 31, 2021.

He also told journalists that all major trunk lines conveying crude oil to export terminals were currently shut down in order to avert further oil theft in the Niger Delta.

He was, however, quick to state that efforts by the oil firm, security agencies and surveillance contractors were paying off, as about 400,000 barrels of crude would be added to the country’s output in the next few days.

The NNPC boss said, “In September 2021, Mr. President graciously approved the publication of the 2020 NNPC Group Audited Financial Statement, in which NNPC declared a profit after tax of N287bn for the first time in its 44 years.

“Despite our challenging operating environment, we strongly believe that NNPC has the potential to sustainably deliver better value to its esteemed shareholders.

“Today I am happy to announce that the Board of NNPC Limited has approved 2021 audited financial statements, and NNPC progressed to a new performance level, from N287bn profit in 2020 to a N674bn profit after tax in 2021, climbing higher by 134.8 per cent year-on-year profit growth.”

He added, “The group’s financial position recorded an increase in total assets from N15.86tn in 2020 to N16.27tn in 2021, while our total liabilities decreased by 8.3 per cent from N14.68tn in 2020 to N13.46tn in 2021.

“Our shareholders fund position grew to N2.81tn, representing 144 per cent year-on-year. The performance would have been greater if the operations in the year under review were free from incessant vandalism, crude oil and products’ theft among others.”

Asked to state the main drivers of the profit, Kyari replied, “Our core business is upstream, gas and power. So the key drivers to this performance are coming from the upstream and the gas and power.”

Commenting on the amount of crude oil being lost to theft and why it had been difficult to contain oil theft, the NNPC helmsman stated that though oil production had slumped, not all reported volumes were stolen.

He said, “Today, our production is around 1.2 million barrels per day. We have proven capacity and this was seen in 2020, where our production, without any intervention, peaked at 2.49 million barrels per day.

“That means we have capacity, without doing anything extra, to produce up to 2.49mbpd. But since COVID-19 abated and, of course, the issues around the acts of vandals returned, we saw this gradual decline in our production to the point of this 1.2mbpd production currently.

“That means that you can easily produce up to 2.49mbpd but you couldn’t do it because of the acts of vandals. Now, this doesn’t mean that the difference between 2.49mbpd and 1.2mbpd is stolen. No. It is far from this.”

Kyari added, “As we speak now, all our major trunk lines are shut down. That means you are not flowing crude oil into these lines, but you could have done it and it doesn’t mean the product is stolen. When the lines are running, you can lose a substantial part of that volume.

“And we believe that when they are running, you can lose up to 200,000 barrels to theft. But in actual losses today, our budget level plan is to produce at 1.8mbpd. So, if you are doing 1.2mbpd, it technically means you are losing the difference between 1.2mbpd and 1.8mbpd.

“And this is around 600,000bpd as opportunity lost, not stolen. So, once you bring back the line and you are not able to secure it, you’ll still get some of the oil flowing into the terminals but you’ll lose some part of it.”

Kyari insisted that the above scenario did not mean that 600,000bpd of oil was stolen, describing it as opportunity lost because of the shutdown of production facilities.

“But I’m happy to also say that the interventions that we have seen in terms of the security measures we have taken, in collaboration with the government security agencies, with the private surveillance and security contractors, and the investments that we have done, we believe that in the next couple of days we will be able to bring back the Trans Niger Pipeline,” he said.