NNPC Missing as China, Saudi Arabia Top World’s Biggest Oil Revenue Earners in 2021

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has failed to make the latest list of the world’s highest income-grossing oil companies, both nationally-run and privately-owned. The list was compiled from the organisations’ 2020 audited financial statements.

But NNPC on Sunday said although the repair of roads was not within its direct purview, it was willing to fix some roads across the country to ease the movement of petroleum products. The offer by the national oil company came following a threat of industrial action by the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) over increasing number of bad roads in the country.

However, the Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) of NUPENG yesterday suspended the planned strike, which was earlier scheduled to commence today.

The latest list of the world’s highest income-grossing oil companies showed that although a number of the 10 highest-earning oil and gas companies in 2021 lost billions in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and trade war between Russia and Saudi Arabia, big deals and discoveries were still made, further aided by recovering oil prices from the last quarter of last year.

The list showed that Sinopec, also known as China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation, earned $323 billion in revenues in 2020, according to a compilation by offshore-technology.com, one of the leading entities covering the global offshore oil and gas industry.

But Sinopec’s revenue fell by 28.8 per cent last year, while at the same time, net income fell by 43 per cent, leaving it with a value of approximately $70 billion.

Despite topping the list, the company’s refining and exploration/production units jointly made losses of approximately $22 billion in 2020, but earnings of $21 billion from its marketing and distribution sector helped offset the losses.

In line with China’s upcoming five-year plan, the company has moved toward developing hydrogen production and has installed hydrogen refuelling stations in at least four provinces.

China also came second on the list with PetroChina, the publicly listed arm of the state-owned company, China National Petroleum Corp, exceeding its post-pandemic expectations.

During the year, the company increased oil output by 4.8 per cent and gas output by 9.9 per cent compared to 2019 and pushed the cost of production down by 8.3 per cent, to $11.1 per barrel.

The company’s revenue fell by 23.2 per cent in 2020, but it increased its full-year dividend by more than 20 per cent and achieved new record levels of gross profit, lifted by economic recovery and rising oil prices.

The two Chinese companies were followed by Saudi Aramco with $230 billion revenue for the year under review. In April 2020, the company achieved it’s highest-ever single-day crude oil production rate, at 12.1 million barrels per day. Nigeria pumps less than 2 million bpd.

The company’s capital expenditure fell by $6 billion in 2020, mainly because it spent some money in acquiring a majority stake of chemicals company Sabic in June and invested in a joint-venture materials company with oilfield service company Baker Hughes and agreed to build a chemicals plant in eastern Saudi Arabia with TotalEnergies.

The company attained pre-tax earnings of $101 billion and a net income of $49 billion in 2020, both around 60 per cent of the previous year’s total.

The fourth position was occupied by Royal Dutch Shell, which earned about $181bn in 2020, according to the data. Shell emerged the highest-earning oil company not owned by a government.

But the company still lost $21 billion across the 2020 financial year most of which came as a result of revenue almost halving, falling to $180 billion.

On the list also was British giant BP, which grossed $180 billion in 2020. The company’s financial mirrored those of Shell, with revenue falling to $180 billion, while its upstream segment recorded a net loss of $21 billion across the 2020/21 financial year.

ExxonMobil came sixth, with revenue worth of $179 billion in the 2020 financial year, although the company lost $22.4 billion in the fourth quarter of 2020, compared to a $14.3bn profit one year before.

The company’s upstream division went from earning $14 billion in 2019, to losing $20 billion in 2020. Revenue fell by approximately $77 billion, though most analysts expect this to reverse again across 2021.

Occupying the seventh position, according to the data, was TotalEnergies, formerly known as Total, with total revenue of $120 billion in 2020. Its income from sales fell by $60 billion, compared to the year before, while overall net income went from $11.4 billion in 2019 to a loss of $7.3 billion in 2020.

It was trailed by Chevron with $94 billion impacted by its big moment in 2020 when it acquired US shale oil and gas producer Noble Energy. Losses peaked in the second quarter of 2020, when the company saw a net loss of $8.3 billion. Across the whole year, the company made a net loss of $5.5 billion, though net production remained mainly the same.

Russia’s Gazprom held on to the ninth position with total revenue of $85 billion although sales fell from $29 billion in 2019 to $22 billion in 2020, partly because of production restrictions following Russia’s deal with the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). As a result, net profits fell from $10 billion to a loss of $9.7 billion.

According to the data, America’s Marathon oil made $70 billion gross revenue in 2020, almost halving its capital spending to deal with the pandemic, with further cuts in 2021. Marathon’s sale of Speedway, its chain of vehicle filling stations, included a 15-year supply deal with buyer 7-Eleven worth about $21 billion cash transaction.

Including income from Speedway, Marathon’s adjusted raw earnings fell to $4.4 billion in 2020, down from $11.1 billion the year before. Most of the fall came from the company’s refining and marketing segment, where raw earnings went from $2.8 billion to a loss of $5.1 billion across the year.

For the first time ever, the NNPC this year publicly announced a profit of N287 billion, about $700 million (when converted at the current official exchange rate of about N410 to $1). The national oil company recently told Nigerians that it already has a projection of over N300 billion profit for this year which would be announced at the end of 2021.

The profit was mostly from the reversal of amounts impaired (when a company declares an asset valuable after it previously declared it a liability) for years. It also pushed the corporation’s total revenue to about N3.7 trillion or roughly $9 billion when converted.

NNPC is in the process of being fully commercialised with the recent passage of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), although it had always been bugged down by excessive political control.

Meanwhile, NNPC yesterday said although the repair of roads was not within its direct purview, it was willing to fix selected roads across the country to ease the movement of petroleum products. The offer by the national oil company came after the threat of industrial action by the PTD of NUPENG.

The South-west Zonal Chairman of NUPENG, Tayo Aboyeji, at the weekend, said the union had lost many members and properties due to bad roads, saying several calls on the government concerning the situation have fallen on deaf ears.

Describing the roads as, “deplorable and shameful,” he maintained that when trucks loaded petrol in Lagos, the drivers spent between five to six days to get to Abuja because of the bad state of the roads.

Aboyeji said, “All calls by the executive of petroleum unions have fallen on the deaf ears of the government as the highways continue to deteriorate nationwide. The list of the highways is endless and the tanker drivers have been going through harrowing situations while rendering selfless national service.

“The increased rate of fire incidents involving petroleum tankers with accompanying massive destruction of lives and property of our members and the general public is enough.”

Aside the demand for road rehabilitation, the union further stated that government had failed to enforce the installation of safety gadgets on tankers, which would protect the inflammatory contents of their trucks from spilling over when accidents happen.

It further stated that some tank farm owners still used tankers exceeding 45,000 litres carrying capacity, despite reaching an agreement with the government on the matter.

In a statement yesterday, signed by the NNPC’s Group General Manager, Public Affairs Division, Mr. Garba Muhammad, the corporation stated, “Even though it is not the responsibility of the NNPC to build or rehabilitate roads, any disruption in the distribution of petroleum products to different parts of Nigeria will adversely affect the business of the NNPC and endanger energy security, which the country has enjoyed for a long time now.

“In recognition of this, the NNPC wishes to assure the petroleum tanker drivers that in addition to the on-going efforts by other agencies of government, the NNPC has initiated a process that will provide a quick and effective solution to the roads network challenges as expressed by the PTD.

“Having recognised that the major reason slowing down the rehabilitation of the road networks in the country is the paucity of funds, the NNPC has expressed interest to invest in the reconstruction of select federal roads under the Federal Government’s Road Infrastructure Development and Refurbishment Investment Task Credit Scheme.”

The corporation noted that the thrust of its intervention was to make considerable funds available for the reconstruction of roads through it future tax liability.

Meanwhile, NUPENG on Sunday night said the planned strike by PTD, which would have kicked off midnight on Sunday, had been suspended.

A statement signed by NUPENG’s National President, William Akporeha, and General Secretary, Afolabi Olawale, announcing the suspension of the intended withdrawal of services, said the decision followed an understanding reached with the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) at a meeting held in Ibadan.

The union stated that there would be a follow-up meeting scheduled to hold on Tuesday, October 12, in Abuja, stressing that the suspension of the planned action is predicated on its belief that the agreement reached with the government yesterday as well as resolutions reached during the planned meeting will be fulfilled to the letter.

NUPENG stated, “We wish to clearly make it known to all well-meaning Nigerians that have variously appealed to us on these issues that our plan was not intended to inflict further pains on Nigerians but to ensure observance of minimum safety on our highways for the good of lives and properties.

“We are aware of the impacts our actions usually have on the people, businesses and the nation at large but we cannot continue to watch as things continue to degenerate in our industry.”

In the light of the above, the union stated that it would not hesitate to re- commence the action without any notice if the understanding reached in the two meetings were not fully implemented within the timeframe agreed.

“With this, our petroleum tanker drivers are hereby directed to continue providing services for the efficient and effective distribution of petroleum products to homes and workplaces across the country,” the statement said.

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja and Peter Uzoho in Lagos

Follow us on: