NNPC profit falls 47.9% to N279 billion in July amid lower crude and gas output

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) recorded a profit after tax (PAT) of N279 billion in July 2026, representing a 47.9% decline from the N535 billion recorded in June.

The figure was contained in the company’s Monthly Report Summary for July 2026, which also showed that revenue declined to N3.087 trillion during the month.

The July PAT was the company’s lowest monthly profit since March 2026, when it recorded N276 billion.

What the data is saying

Checks by Nairametrics show that the July performance represents a sharp reversal from June, when NNPC recorded its highest monthly profit since August 2025.

• The company’s PAT had risen by 15.8% from N462 billion in May to N535 billion in June 2026.
• NNPC’s revenue, however, declined from N4.39 trillion in June to N3.087 trillion in July, representing a 29.7% month-on-month drop.

The weaker financial performance during the month coincided with declines in petroleum production and sales.

• According to the report, crude oil and condensate production averaged 1.68 million barrels per day (mmbopd) in July, down from 1.72 million barrels per day in June, representing a decline of about 2.3%.

Natural gas production also fell to 7,489 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscf/d) from 7,841 mmscf/d in June, representing a decline of about 4.5%.

• “July crude oil production was affected by a combination of operational disruptions across several assets, including facility outages, equipment unavailability, pipeline incidents, and production constraints,” the report stated.

Additionally, crude oil and condensate sales fell to 22.53 million barrels in July, compared with 28.23 million barrels in June, representing a decline of about 20.2%. Gas sales also declined to 4,581 mmscf/d from 4,970 mmscf/d in June.

• Cumulative statutory payments to the Federation between January and July reached N7.913 trillion, up from N6.286 trillion recorded between January and June 2026. This represents an additional N1.627 trillion in statutory payments during July.

The company said its production improvement efforts would focus on sustaining high facility uptime through preventive maintenance programmes and minimising unplanned downtime.

It also identified measures including optimising export operations at FEPL and Nembe EP, maturing and delivering incremental production opportunities across its portfolio, restoring barging operations at Obodo, and activating tandem offloading operations at Akpo and Erha.

Get up to speed

NNPC’s profit has fluctuated considerably over the past year, with the latest figure reversing much of the improvement recorded between February and June.

• In July 2025, the company posted a steep 79.6% drop in profit after tax, sliding to N185 billion from N905 billion in June, according to its monthly financial and operational report.
• The following month, PAT surged by about 191.4% to N539 billion in August 2025.
• PAT subsequently declined to N216 billion in September before recovering to N447 billion in October and N502 billion in November.
• The company recorded N351 billion in December 2025 and N385 billion in January 2026.
• Profit fell sharply to N136 billion in February before rising to N276 billion in March, N481 billion in April, N462 billion in May and N535 billion in June.

With PAT falling to N279 billion in July, the company has now recorded its lowest monthly profit in four months.

The July figure is still N143 billion higher than the N136 billion recorded in February, the lowest monthly PAT reported by NNPC so far in 2026.

What you should know

NNPC’s financial performance comes against the backdrop of stronger growth in Nigeria’s oil sector during the second quarter of 2026.

• The oil sector grew by 7.31% year-on-year in Q2 2026, according to the latest GDP data, up significantly from the 2.57% growth recorded in the first quarter of the year.
• However, the growth rate was lower than the 20.46% recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2025.
• On a quarter-on-quarter basis, the oil sector expanded by 10.91%.
• The sector’s contribution to Nigeria’s real GDP also increased to 4.16% in Q2 2026, compared with 4.05% in the corresponding quarter of 2025 and 3.92% in Q1 2026.

The broader Nigerian economy also expanded during the period, with real GDP growing by 4.43% year-on-year in Q2 2026, up from 4.23% in Q2 2025.

This means the July performance could become an important indicator to watch as Nigeria enters the third quarter, particularly as the oil sector remains a key contributor to economic growth and government revenue.