The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) revenue declined 27.02 percent to N1.08 trillion in the first five months of 2021 compared with N1.48 trillion revenues earned in the corresponding period of last year.
According to a Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) document, the state-owned oil firm earning declined by N396.8 billion in the period despite global crude oil price recovery.
The document also showed that the corporation failed to meet its monthly funding obligation of N414.94 billion for its projects and operations for the period.
Whereas the NNPC has a total revenue projection of N4.97 trillion for 2021, sub-divided into N414.941 billion per month, the document showed that in January, it raked in gross revenue of N195.624 billion and N191.194 billion in February.
In March, the NNPC’s total revenue stood at N224.589 billion and was N156.366 billion in April, while in May, the corporation grossed a revenue of N320.315 billion to hit N1.088 trillion.
In comparison, for the same period in 2020, gross revenue, which is a summation of receipts from Joint Venture (JV) crude oil, JV gas, Production Sharing Contracts (PSC) and miscellaneous sources stood at N380 billion in January.
The revenue in February was N264.1 billion, in March, it was N324.4 billion, it was N298.1 billion in April and it stood at N219.3 billion in May.
However, the corporation resumed the monthly funding for its frontier exploration services which did not receive any budget in April, but gulped N3.22 billion in May, having received N1.96 billion in January, N1.92 billion in February and N2.255 billion in March.
The NNPC is currently performing exploration and drilling activities of Kolmani River 3, had reported earlier that the first appraisal, Kolmani River 2, in the Gongola Basin, encountered both oil, condensate and gas, which it said were significant finds.
The corporation is also carrying out exploration activities in the Chad Basin further northwards but had to halt its seismic operations after insurgents attacked and killed the technical workers and some security forces.
Although financing of frontier exploration basins is currently at the discretion of the corporation, the new Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), if assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari as it currently exists will make it mandatory for the NNPC to deploy 30 percent from proceeds of its production sharing, profit sharing and risk service contracts to fund exploration of the basins.
