NNPC’s Subsidiary Posts N6.11bn Profit from Gas Processing, Transportation

Chineme Okafor in Abuja

The Nigerian Gas Processing and Transportation Company (NGPTC), a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), has declared a profit after tax worth N6.11 billion from its business of processing and transporting natural gas to its customers in 2017.

The NGPTC said in a statement from the NNPC on Sunday in Abuja, that it made the profit from processing and transporting about 292.91 billion standard cubic feet (bcf) of gas to its customers in Nigeria’s domestic gas market, as well as to export points in the country.

It however explained that the volume of gas processed and transported was below the volume it planned for in its 2017 business target.

“In the year under review, total revenue generated from gas transmitted stood at N72.7 billion translating to 292.91 billion standard cubic feet of gas as against the planned 429.92bcf thereby achieving 68.13 per cent of its target.

“Profit before tax was N6.75 billion while profit after tax came to N6.11 billion within the period,” said the NGPTC in the statement signed by NNPC’s Group General Manager, Public Affairs, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu.

The statement also had NNPC’s Group Managing Director, Dr. Maikanti Baru, describing the NGPTC during its 2017 annual general meeting (AGM) as an entity primed to deliver on its vision to be the natural gas processing and transportation company of choice in Nigeria.

Baru said the NNPC was relying on the NGPTC’s competence to deliver its 614 kilometres (km) Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) gas pipeline project which he noted would gulp $3 billion to execute through third party contractor financing and construction model.

According to him, apart from the AKK project, the NGPTC was building new pipelines like the OB-3 line which he said would come into operation later in the year alongside other significant gas pipeline projects across the country.

He commended the company for recording a profit after tax of N6.11 billion in its first year of operation under the new structure which he noted refocused it solely on gas transportation.

According to Baru, the profit was made despite the NGPTC operating in an environment filled with incessant pipeline vandalism and condensate evacuation challenges.

Similarly, NNPC’s Chief Operating Officer Gas and Power, who is also the chairman of the NGPTC, Mr. Saidu Mohammed, said the NGPTC was focused on consolidating on its strength and grow to bigger levels.

Mohammed stated that by 2019, the company would have leapfrogged into the big league with most of its ongoing gas infrastructure projects coming on stream.

The statement said the company which was created from the restructuring of the Nigerian Gas Company (NGC) into two separate entities comprising the NGPTC and the Nigerian Gas Marketing Company (NGMC) in 2016, has been saddled with the job of processing and transporting natural gas domestically and to the export nodes, while NGMC handled the business of gas distribution and marketing.