Why statutory payments to FG dropped by 42% to N726bn in January—NNPC

By Abubakar Yunusa

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited says statutory payments dropped to N726 billion in January.

NNPC announced the amount in its ‘Monthly Report Summary’ for January 2026, published on Monday.

Statutory payments is the mandatory financial obligation of the NNPC to the federal government every month.

According to the report, the statutory payments dropped by 42.83 percent, from the N1.27 trillion paid in December 2025.

NNPC also said revenue dropped to N2.57 trillion in January, below the N4.82 trillion recorded in the previous month — representing a 46.68 percent decline.

However, the company reported a 9.69 percent rise in profit after tax (PAT), which increased to N385 billion in January, surpassing the N351 billion achieved in December.

In addition, the company said natural gas output rose to 7.28 million standard cubic feet per day (mscfd) in January, compared with 6.19 mscfd in the previous month.

NNPC added that gas sales increased to 4.97 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscf/d) — from 4.75 mmscf/d in December.

According to the firm, crude oil and condensates production rose to 1.64 million barrels per day (bpd) in January — from 1.55 million bpd in December 2025.

“Production increased month on month following the completion of Turn Around Maintenance at Agbami and Renaissance (Estuary Area – EA),” NNPC said.

“However, planned deliveries for January were reduced due to bad weather, evacuation, and asset integrity challenges.”

According to the company, pre-commissioning activities continued on the mainline of the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) gas pipeline.

The oil firm added that significant progress was reported in the construction of the block valve stations (BVS) and intermediate pigging stations (IPS).

The NNPC said drilling activities also progressed as scheduled on the Obiafu-Obrikom-Oben (OB3) river Niger crossing.