NNPC Revenue Hits 2.68 Trillion Naira But Profit Crashes 64% As Production Drops

NNPC Limited posted 2.68 trillion naira in revenue for February 2026, a 4.2 percent increase from the 2.57 trillion recorded in January. That sounds like growth. The problem is that profit after tax fell off a cliff, dropping 64.67 percent to 136 billion naira from 385 billion the previous month.

The reason for the squeeze is straightforward enough. President Tinubu directed the removal of the 30 percent retention on oil and gas profits, which means NNPC now remits far more to the federal government. Remittances surged 148.48 percent, from 726 billion in January to 1.804 trillion in February. The company is collecting more and keeping less. Whether that is good for the country depends on whether you think the federal government spends money better than the national oil company does.

Production is sliding

On the production side, the picture is not encouraging. Crude oil and condensate output fell from 1.64 million barrels per day in January to 1.51 million in February. Crude alone dropped to 1.27 million bpd, with condensate at 240,000 bpd. The Trans Forcados Pipeline went down for integrity issues. Stardeep Agbami had start-up challenges after turnaround maintenance. The Sterling Oguali flow station saw delayed completion. Enyie wells hit production ramp-up constraints from sludge management. These are not one-off glitches. They are recurring structural problems.

Total crude and condensate sales for February stood at 23.08 million barrels, compared to 28.64 million in October 2025. That is a sharp decline over five months. Gas production, on the other hand, held up reasonably well at 7,458 million standard cubic feet per day, one of the highest figures in recent months, though gas sales lagged slightly below mid-2025 peaks.

The squeeze continues

At the pump, NNPC Retail stations reported petrol availability at just 58 percent, which is concerning for a company that is supposed to be the supplier of last resort. The Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano gas pipeline is 93 percent complete, and the Obiafu-Obrikom-Oben project sits at 96 percent. Both have been at or near completion for months. NNPC says it will "strengthen production resilience and restore output through improved asset reliability," which is the same language used in every quarterly report.

The bigger story here is about what NNPC has become. It is now the federal government’s single biggest revenue source, pumping 1.8 trillion naira into government coffers in one month. But it is doing that while its own production is declining, its downstream operations are struggling, and its infrastructure keeps breaking down. You cannot keep squeezing a company for revenue while ignoring the fact that the company is producing less, selling less, and operating with aging assets. At some point, the math stops working.

Sources: Punch, NaijaNews, Daily Trust, Vanguard