The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has disclosed that it made statutory payments totalling ₦10.07 trillion between January and August 2025, according to its September Monthly Report Summary released on Tuesday. The report, however, did not specify which agencies received the payments or provide a detailed breakdown of what the remittances covered — a recurring omission that continues to raise questions about the transparency of Nigeria’s state-owned oil company.
NNPC’s disclosure comes at a time when its revenue remittances to the Federation Account are facing renewed scrutiny. A recent policy brief by Abuja-based think tank Agora Policy accused the company of underperforming in transferring due revenues to the federal purse. According to Agora, the NNPC has remitted only ₦534 billion so far this year as the federation’s share of production sharing contract (PSC) profit oil, a fraction of what analysts believe is owed.
Production sharing contracts are arrangements under which international oil companies (IOCs) explore and produce crude oil on behalf of the government, with profits shared according to agreed terms. Under Nigeria’s fiscal framework, the NNPC is responsible for collecting and remitting the federation’s share of these profits. Agora Policy’s findings therefore suggest a significant gap between what the company earns and what it transfers.
The policy group also observed that, despite NNPC reporting approximately ₦1 trillion in profit oil for August alone, it has not paid any interim dividends to the Federation Account. Based on its analysis, Agora estimated that interim dividend payments due to the government should amount to around ₦2.44 trillion. The report warned that such lapses weaken federal revenues at a time when the government is grappling with rising fiscal pressures, including debt servicing costs and foreign exchange instability.
NNPC’s financial performance data adds further complexity to the picture. In September, the company recorded a profit after tax of ₦216 billion, marking a 149% decline from the ₦539 billion profit posted in August. The fall was attributed to a contraction in total revenue, which dropped to ₦4.26 trillion in September from ₦5.18 trillion the previous month. The report did not provide details on which business segments contributed to the decline, though market observers have pointed to lower crude liftings and fluctuating product prices as potential factors.
Operationally, NNPC’s crude oil output also slipped slightly. Production averaged 1.61 million barrels per day (bpd) in September, compared to 1.65 million bpd in August. The company cited ongoing maintenance activities and delayed project start-ups as the main causes of the shortfall. Nigeria has consistently struggled to meet its OPEC+ production quota, largely due to issues such as oil theft, pipeline vandalism, and underinvestment in upstream infrastructure.
The latest figures highlight the continuing tension between NNPC’s dual role as a commercial entity and a key contributor to government revenue. Since it transitioned to a limited liability company under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) of 2021, NNPC has sought to portray itself as a profit-oriented enterprise operating on commercial principles. However, the company’s opaque financial disclosures and the persistent gaps in its remittance performance have cast doubt on the extent to which it is adhering to the PIA’s transparency and accountability provisions.
Analysts note that the lack of detailed reporting on statutory payments undermines public confidence and makes it difficult to verify how much of NNPC’s earnings are ultimately benefiting the Nigerian people. The ₦10.07 trillion reported as statutory payments could, in theory, cover a range of obligations, including royalties, taxes, domestic crude allocations, fuel subsidies, and contributions to joint venture operations. Without disaggregation, however, it remains unclear how much of the sum constitutes direct revenue to the Federation Account as opposed to operational expenses or transfers to other agencies.
For the Nigerian government, which relies heavily on oil revenue for budgetary stability, this opacity poses a serious fiscal challenge. The Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC), which distributes monthly revenues to the federal, state, and local governments, has frequently complained of irregular transfers from NNPC. The situation has forced the federal government to depend more on borrowing and non-oil revenues, even as the naira continues to weaken and inflation remains stubbornly high.
Calls for greater transparency have grown louder in recent months. Civil society groups and policy analysts have urged the company to publish disaggregated reports on its statutory payments and dividend policies, in line with international best practices adopted by national oil companies in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Brazil, and Norway.
As Nigeria seeks to boost investor confidence in its energy sector and stabilise public finances, NNPC’s credibility will likely remain under the spotlight. The company’s next financial report — and its response to Agora Policy’s findings — could prove decisive in determining whether it is genuinely evolving into the transparent, commercially driven entity envisioned under the PIA or merely carrying forward the opacity of its past under a new corporate guise.
