The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) Tuesday announced that it posted a 33 per cent increase in Profit After Tax (PAT) to N7.2 trillion in the financial year ended 2025, rising from N5.4 trillion in 2024.
According to the national oil company, this was despite a 24 per cent decline in its total revenue to N34.5 trillion. NNPC also declared a N5.8 trillion dividend and reported its strongest crude and condensate production in five years, averaging 1.77 million barrels per day.
The results, presented at the company’s headquarters in Abuja by the Group Chief Executive Officer, Bayo Ojulari, further showed a significant improvement in other key financial indicators, with Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortisation (EBITDA) rising 22 per cent to N18 trillion, while earnings per share increased 32 per cent to N35.9.
Besides, Operating cash flow grew 16 per cent to N12.8 trillion, while return on equity improved by 200 basis points to 16 per cent. The company’s board declared a dividend of N5.8 trillion, representing a 35 per cent increase over the previous year.
Speaking at the briefing, Ojulari attributed the stronger profit performance to improved operational efficiency and financial discipline, despite the pressures that affected revenue during the year. He said taxes, royalties and other remittances to the federal government rose 39 per cent to N22.3 trillion.
Ojulari said crude oil and condensate production averaged 1.77 million barrels per day, representing the company’s highest level in five years, while natural gas supply reached a three-year high of 7.2 billion standard cubic feet per day.
The improvement in production was also reflected in the company’s annual volumes, with oil and condensate production totalling 565.8 million barrels, up 5 per cent, while NNPC’s equity share increased 11 per cent to 223.7 million barrels.
In the same vein, natural gas production rose 9 per cent to 2,606.2 billion cubic feet, with NNPC’s equity share increasing 11 per cent to 1,154.9 billion cubic feet.
According to Ojulari, progress across the portfolio included completion of the AKK River Niger crossing and full completion of the 40-inch by 623-kilometre Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano mainline.
He explained that the NNPC also commissioned the ANOH-OB3 Custody Transfer Metering Station and advanced the 300MMscfd ANOH Gas Processing Plant to start-up readiness. It also acquired 500 CNG-powered trucks, and adopted a Technical Equity Partnership Model for its refinery reform.
Ojulari said the performance was the result of sustained attention to the company’s assets, infrastructure and execution, stressing that the stronger earnings would give NNPC greater capacity to invest and contribute to public revenue.
“Our 2025 performance shows what disciplined execution and a capable workforce can deliver. We are strengthening earnings, growing production and investing in the people and assets that will sustain value for our shareholders, communities and the Nigerian people,” he said.
He said NNPC was also strengthening its workforce through its Talent-to-Value programme, noting that more than 1,000 newly recruited professionals had completed a rigorous one-year internship and training programme and had been deployed across the company.
The company said it employed 1,023 full-time employees in 2025, while women now occupy 23 per cent of leadership positions, compared with a global industry average of 17 per cent.
Beyond its financial performance, NNPC announced that it recorded progress on several major infrastructure and operational projects during the year.
On the refineries, Ojulari said NNPC had made significant progress with prospective partners under its Technical Equity Partnership model.
He said the prospective partners had carried out a three-month intrusive, on-site due diligence exercise involving more than 30 senior technical personnel, with the objective of establishing a commercially viable and sustainable pathway for the refineries.
According to him, the new approach would require prospective partners to take equity stakes and share responsibility for the performance of the refineries, rather than simply executing rehabilitation contracts and leaving NNPC with the operational risks.
He said the company had learnt from previous refinery rehabilitation efforts and was determined to ensure that any new arrangement resulted in commercially sustainable operations.
“We want going forward to have a refinery that is self-sustaining, that is profitable and is sustainable, and that’s what we’re looking for,” Ojulari said.
He added that NNPC was also considering the integration of petrochemicals into the refinery strategy to improve margins and extend the value chain.
On the potential Initial Public Offering (IPO) of NNPC, Ojulari said the company had commenced work on its listing-readiness and was making progress in identifying and closing gaps required for a potential listing.
He, however, stressed that management could only prepare the company for listing, while the ultimate decision on an IPO remained with the shareholders.
“We don’t have a date, but we are working hard to make sure we are ready as soon as we can,” he said.
On crude-backed financing, Ojulari said Project Gazelle remained in place, explaining that the arrangement was linked to production-sharing contracts (PSCs) and did not directly affect NNPC’s equity crude production.
He also explained that while NNPC continued to supply crude under the government-approved naira-for-crude arrangement, other available crude was sold in dollars because the company’s major operational commitments, including payments to drilling contractors and operators, were dollar-denominated.
The GCEO also disclosed that the company had intensified efforts to recover outstanding receivables from customers that had taken its crude and gas but had not paid for them.
He said the commercialisation of NNPC under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) had changed the company’s approach to debt recovery because it could no longer depend on government budgetary allocations to cover its obligations.
“We have to make sure that we’re paid. Otherwise, there’s no one that’s going to save us,” he said.
On security of crude production, Ojulari said the company had recorded significant improvement in the reliability of major pipelines through a combination of community-based surveillance, security intervention and technology.
He said the reconciliation factor between crude produced and volumes accounted for at terminals was now in the 90 per cent range, compared with the much lower levels recorded during periods of severe pipeline disruption.
However, he acknowledged that smaller internal pipelines and wellheads remained vulnerable and said NNPC was deploying technologies, including fibre optics and intrusion-detection systems, to improve surveillance and response.
The company also said it acquired 500 compressed natural gas-powered trucks during the year as part of its efforts to strengthen its downstream operations.
Looking ahead, NNPC reiterated that it is targeting crude oil production of 2 million barrels per day by 2027 and 3 million barrels per day by 2030.
In the same vein Ojulari stressed that the NNPC was eyeing natural gas production of 10 billion cubic feet per day by 2027 and 12 billion cubic feet per day by 2030, while seeking to mobilise $60 billion in investment across the upstream, midstream and downstream segments.
Ojulari said the targets were ambitious but achievable, provided the company could attract the capital, technology, partnerships and execution capacity required to deliver them.
The company said it would also continue work on major gas infrastructure, including AKK, the Escravos-Lagos Pipeline System and OB3, while pursuing additional investment and portfolio partnerships to accelerate growth.
NNPC’s 2025 performance also included 6,028 cataract surgeries, the planting of 80,000 trees and the development of its Net Zero 2050 strategy, alongside continued reporting under international sustainability frameworks.
The company said the results demonstrated a stronger financial and operational foundation from which it would pursue its longer-term objective of becoming a commercially focused and globally competitive energy company.
The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Adedapo Segun, who provided further details on the financial performance, said the improvement in profitability was largely driven by efficiency gains and tighter cost management.
He explained that while cost of sales remained broadly at the same proportion of revenue as in 2024, NNPC reduced its General and Administrative (G&A) expenses by about a quarter during the year.
According to him, G&A expenses, which represented about 8 per cent of revenue in 2024, fell to about 7 per cent in 2025 despite the lower revenue base. He also identified the recovery of long-standing receivables as another major contributor to the bottom-line performance.
Segun said the recovery enabled NNPC to reverse some provisions previously made against the receivables, thereby providing an additional boost to the company’s profit.
“Those are the areas where you begin to see the step changes that define what we’re talking about,” he said.
He added that the company would continue to drive down costs, noting that unit operating costs in the upstream business had also fallen year-on-year.
“Going forward, our expectation is that we continue to improve on operational excellence. We continue to drive costs lower. Our unit operating costs for our upstream was lower year on year,” he said.
Emmanuel Addeh
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