By Obas Esiedesa, Abuja
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd.) recorded a sharp decline in profitability in July 2026, with profit after tax (PAT) falling to N279 billion from N535 billion in June, amid lower revenue and declines in crude oil and natural gas production.
The July figure represents a 47.9 per cent month-on-month decline in profit and is the company’s lowest monthly profit since March, when it posted N276 billion.
Data contained in NNPC Ltd.’s Monthly Report Summary for July 2026 showed that revenue also fell from N4.389 trillion in June to N3.087 trillion in July, representing a decline of about 29.7 per cent.
The July performance reversed part of the strong improvement recorded in the preceding months, as NNPC’s PAT rose from N236 billion in February to N276 billion in March, N481 billion in April, N462 billion in May and N535 billion in June, before dropping to N279 billion in July.
On a year-to-date basis, the company’s monthly profit figures stood at N385 billion in January, N236 billion in February, N276 billion in March, N481 billion in April, N462 billion in May, N535 billion in June and N279 billion in July.
Revenue also fluctuated significantly during the period, moving from N5.571 trillion in January to N2.680 trillion in February, N2.774 trillion in March, N4.971 trillion in April, N4.335 trillion in May, N4.389 trillion in June and N3.087 trillion in July.
The weaker July financial performance coincided with lower hydrocarbon production and sales.
According to the report, crude oil and condensate production averaged 1.68 million barrels per day (mbopd) in July, compared with 1.72 million barrels per day in June, representing a decline of about 2.3 per cent.
Natural gas production also declined to 7,489 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) in July from 7,841 mmscfd in June, a drop of about 4.5 per cent.
NNPC attributed the reduction in crude oil production to operational disruptions across several assets, including facility outages, equipment unavailability, pipeline incidents and other production constraints.
Crude oil and condensate sales also declined significantly, falling to 22.53 million barrels in July from 28.23 million barrels in June, representing a drop of about 20.2 per cent.
Gas sales declined to 4,581 mmscfd from 4,970 mmscfd over the same period.
Despite the decline in production and earnings, NNPC reported an increase in statutory payments to the Federation.
Cumulative statutory payments for January to July 2026 reached N7.913 trillion, compared with N6.286 trillion recorded between January and June. This represents an additional N1.627 trillion in statutory payments during July.
The company also sustained 100 per cent upstream pipeline availability for the second consecutive month.
NNPC said its production improvement efforts would focus on sustaining high facility uptime through preventive maintenance programmes and reducing unplanned downtime.
The company also listed measures including the optimisation of export operations at FEPL and Nembe EP, delivery of incremental production opportunities across its portfolio, restoration of barging operations at Obodo and activation of tandem offloading operations at Akpo and Erha.
NNPC further reported that the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) gas pipeline project had reached the early gas stage, with construction and installation works at an advanced stage to deliver early gas to Abuja this year.
It added that the Obiafu-Obrikom-Oben (OB3) gas pipeline had completed pre-commissioning activities in readiness to deliver first gas in August 2026.
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