Refineries under NNPC suffers N123.3bn loss in 10 months

By Okechukwu Nnodim, Abuja

The country's refineries under the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation made a cumulative loss of N 123.25 bn from January to October 2019, latest figures released on Wednesday showed.

An analysis of data in the October 2019 oil and gas report of the NNPC showed that all three entities recorded losses during the period under review.

Refineries under NNPC management include the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company, Port Harcourt Refining Company and Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company.

Findings showed that while KRPC posted a loss of N 49 .3 bn in the 10 -month period, PHRC and WRPC lost N36.7 bn and N 37.24 bn respectively during the same period.

It was further observed that the actual revenue made by the three facilities during the period was N 68 .82 bn while their expenses were put at N 192. 1 bn.

Of the three refineries, WRPC made the highest revenue of N 59.1bn during the period, even as it posted the highest loss of N 96.32 bn.

KRPC and PHRC made N 6 .23 bn and N 3. 46 bn as revenues in the 10 -month period but lost N 55 . 59 bn and N 40 . 16 bn respectively.

For October 2019 alone, the facilities posted a cumulative loss of N 11 .72 bn .

Their individual losses in October were N 5. 24 bn , N 3 .38 bn and N 3 . 1 bn for KRPC , PHRC and WRPC respectively.

There had been various concerns over the abysmal performance of Nigeria ’s refineries.

The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff association, for instance , told our correspondent recently that it was high time the Federal Government channelled the funds spent on petrol subsidy to making the refineries work.

“PENGASSAN has always called on the government of the day to ensure that our refineries are functioning optimally . The humongous amount spent on petrol subsidy should be invested in our refineries,” PENGASSAN spokesperson , Fortune Obi , said.

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He said the government could not be subsidising petrol forever, adding that the main solution was to remove subsidy and make the refineries functional.