The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd.) recorded a sharp decline in profitability in July 2026, as lower crude oil and condensate production, weaker gas output and reduced sales weighed on its financial performance.
NNPC’s Profit After Tax (PAT) fell to N279 billion in July from N535 billion in June, representing a 48% decline month-on-month, according to the company’s July 2026 Monthly Report Summary.
Revenue also declined to N3.087 trillion during the month, while the company recorded cumulative statutory payments of N7.913 trillion between January and July 2026.
The decline in earnings coincided with weaker production across NNPC’s upstream operations.
Crude oil and condensate production averaged 1.68 million barrels per day (mmbopd) in July, compared with 1.72mmbopd in June.
The monthly trend shows that production had reached 1.73mmbopd in May before easing to 1.72mmbopd in June and 1.68mmbopd in July.
Natural gas production also declined to 7,489 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscf/d) in July from 7,841mmscf/d in June.
The decline in production was accompanied by weaker crude oil and condensate sales.
NNPC reported 22.53 million barrels of crude oil and condensate sales in July, compared with 28.23 million barrels in June.
Gas sales also declined to 4,581mmscf/d in July from 4,970mmscf/d in June.
NNPC attributed the July decline in crude production to a combination of operational disruptions across several assets.
The company cited facility outages, equipment unavailability, pipeline incidents and other production constraints as factors affecting output during the month.
The development highlights the importance of operational reliability to NNPC’s ability to sustain production and translate available capacity into actual crude volumes and sales.
In response, NNPC said its production improvement strategy would focus on maintaining high facility uptime through preventive maintenance programmes and reducing unplanned downtime.
The company is also targeting improved export operations at FEPL and Nembe EP, while pursuing incremental production opportunities across its portfolio.
Other measures include the activation of tandem offloading operations at Akpo and Erha to improve export flexibility and the restoration of barging operations at Obodo to strengthen production evacuation.
The weaker July gas sales come as NNPC reports progress on major gas transportation infrastructure projects.
The company said pre-commissioning activities at the River Niger Crossing section of the Obiafu-Obrikom-Oben (OB3) Gas Pipeline had been completed, putting the project in readiness for first gas in August 2026.
NNPC also said construction and installation works on the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) Gas Pipeline were at an advanced stage, with early gas delivery to Abuja targeted for 2026.
The progress on both projects is significant for Nigeria’s gas infrastructure ambitions, although the July figures show that increased transportation capacity will need to be matched by reliable gas production and sales.
