Nigerian refineries made a total loss of N132.5 billion in 2018, a 39 percent increase from the N95.09 billion loss it incurred in 2017.
According to data from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. NNPC, the Port Harcourt refinery, which did not process any crude oil in seven months, recorded the biggest loss of N59.96 billion in 2018, while Kaduna refinery, which was idle for 11 months, lost N31 billion, with Warri refinery recording a deficit of N41.71 billion.
The data also showed that a total of N13.58 billion was lost in January; N8.05 billion in February; N11.88 billion in March; N20.08 billion in May; N14.51 billion in June; N10.45 billion in July; N10.79 billion in August; N6.97 billion in September, N9.32 billion in October, N9.58 billionin November and N17.31 billion in December.
The refineries however made a profit of N6.32bn in April for the first time in 10 months.
Similarly, the NNPC. in its monthly report released on Tuesday, revealed that its group operating revenue for December stood at N731.88bn, N439.59bn higher than the previous month performance.
It however said its expenditure also surged by N429.52bn.
It said: “This month’s revenue is far more than the budgeted revenue which resulted in a marked increase in trading surplus despite the drag in operating expenditure in the month.”
The corporation recorded a trading surplus of N12.13bn in December.
“This increased performance is attributable to NPDC’s higher revenue recorded during the period following NPDC continuous revenue drive, arising from recent average weekly production of 332,000bpd making the target of 500,000bpd for 2020 achievable. This also captured the updated previous months’ revenue and expense,” it said.
