The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation says it has recorded a 99.7 per cent reduction in its loss profile from ₦803billion in 2018 to ₦1.7billion in 2019.

NNPC disclosed this in its 2019 Audited Financial Statement, released by Dr kennie Obateru, spokesman for the corporation, in Abuja, on Thursday.

The corporation in May published its 2018 AFS and assured of the quick release of the 2019 report.

This, According to NNPC Group Managing Director Malam Mele Kyar, was in line with the effort to ensure transparency and accountability in its operations.

Obateru, quoted the NNPC Chief Financial Officer, Mr Umar Ajiya, as saying that the 2019 AFS was concluded five months after the release of that of 2018.

A breakdown of the report disclosed that general administrative expenses also witnessed a 22 per cent dip from ₦894bn in 2018 to ₦696bn in 2019.

According to Ajiya, the majority of the subsidiaries posted improved performance.

The subsidiaries are the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company Limited (NPDC) which recorded ₦479 billion profit in 2019 compared with ₦179billion in 2018, representing 167 per cent increase.

“The Integrated Data Sciences Limited (IDSL) recorded ₦23billion profit in 2019 compared with ₦154million in 2018, representing 14966 per cent increase and the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC) recorded ₦14.2billion profit in 2019 compared with the ₦9.3billion recorded in 2018, representing 52 per cent increase.

“Also, the refineries maintained the same level of losses as in 2018 but which will reduce significantly in 2020 due to cost optimisation drive,” the CFO said.

He further explained that the improved performance in the 2019 financial year was driven mainly by cost optimisation, contracts renegotiation and operational efficiency.

“The 2019 AFS goes further to demonstrate our unwavering commitment to the principle of Transparency, Accountability, and Performance Excellence while the outlook for 2020 looks promising in view of the management’s strong drive to prune down running cost and grow revenues,” he said.

The NNPC Group Managing Director, Malam Mele Kyari, had promised to sustain the publication of the AFS as part of efforts to deepen transparency and accountability and keep stakeholders abreast of the corporation’s operations.