The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited recorded a sharp decline in profit in July as lower crude oil sales and operational challenges affected its performance.

NNPC’s profit after tax fell from N535bn in June to N279bn in July, representing a 48 per cent drop, according to the company’s July monthly report.

The decline came as crude oil sales dropped to about 21 million barrels during the month. The company attributed the weaker output to disruptions across several production assets, including facility outages, equipment shortages, pipeline incidents and other operational constraints.

NNPC’s revenue also fell during the period, dropping by 31.5 per cent from N4.38tn in June to about N3tn in July.

Gas operations recorded a similar decline. Gas sales dropped from 4,970 million standard cubic feet per day in June to 4,581mmscf/d in July, while gas production fell to 7,489mmscf/d.

Despite the weaker financial performance, NNPC increased its statutory payments to the Federation in July. The company paid N1.63tn during the month, up from N1.43tn in June, taking its total payments between January and July to N7.91tn.

NNPC said it plans to improve production by increasing preventive maintenance and reducing unexpected shutdowns at its facilities.

The company also plans to improve export operations at FEPL and Nembe EP, develop additional production opportunities and strengthen the reliability of key facilities.

Other measures include restarting barging operations at Obodo and introducing tandem offloading at the Akpo and Erha fields to improve crude evacuation and export capacity.

On gas infrastructure, NNPC said work on the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano gas pipeline had reached an advanced stage, with efforts continuing towards delivering early gas to Abuja.

The company also reported progress on the Obiafu-Obrikom-Oben gas pipeline, saying pre-commissioning work for the River Niger crossing had been completed.