NNPC Limited reported a sharp rise in 2025 profit even as revenue fell by nearly a quarter, widening margins and raising a fresh accounting question over the reconciliation between provisional and audited profit figures.
Nigeria’s state-owned oil company, NNPC Limited, reported a sharp rise in profit for 2025 even as revenue fell by nearly a quarter.
Profit after tax rose 33% to ₦7.2 trillion in the year ended December 31, 2025, from ₦5.4 trillion a year earlier, while revenue fell 24% to ₦34.5 trillion.
NNPC attributed the revenue decline mainly to lower crude oil prices and reduced volumes of white petroleum products following market deregulation.
The numbers mean NNPC generated ₦10.6 trillion less revenue than in 2024 but still produced about ₦1.8 trillion more profit after tax.
That widened the company’s implied net profit margin to about 20.9%, from roughly 12% in 2024, based on IDNN calculations from NNPC’s reported revenue and profit figures.
The central question is therefore not simply how large NNPC’s profit became, but how the company generated substantially higher earnings from materially lower revenue.
Cash flow and EBITDA also rise
NNPC said earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose 22% to ₦18 trillion, while operating cash flow increased 16% to ₦12.8 trillion.
Return on equity improved by 200 basis points to 16%, while earnings per share rose 32% to ₦35.90.
The company also declared a ₦5.8 trillion dividend, up 35% from the previous year.
That dividend is equivalent to roughly 81% of reported 2025 profit after tax, based on an IDNN calculation.
NNPC’s investor disclosures separately list 2025 profit after tax of ₦7.2 trillion, operating cash flow of ₦12.8 trillion, return on equity of 16% and dividend of ₦5.8 trillion.
Production reaches multi-year highs
The earnings improvement came alongside higher oil and gas production.
NNPC said crude oil and condensate production averaged 1.77 million barrels per day, its highest level in five years, while natural gas output averaged 7.2 billion standard cubic feet per day, a three-year high.
Total oil and condensate production rose 5% to 565.8 million barrels, while NNPC’s equity share increased 11% to 223.7 million barrels.
Natural gas production increased 9% to 2,606.2 billion standard cubic feet, with NNPC’s equity share rising 11% to 1,154.9 billion standard cubic feet.
Higher production provides part of the operational context for the stronger earnings, although the headline disclosure does not establish how much each factor contributed to the ₦1.8 trillion increase in profit.
Provisional figures reconciled into audited accounts
NNPC’s December 2025 monthly report had earlier listed January-to-December revenue of ₦60.517 trillion and profit after tax of ₦5.760 trillion.
Those figures were described by NNPC as provisional and subject to reconciliation.
The company also stated that the ₦60.517 trillion revenue figure represented aggregate groupwide revenue, including intercompany transactions.
That means the monthly revenue figure is not directly comparable with the subsequently reported audited revenue of ₦34.5 trillion, which reflects the final audited and consolidated accounting basis.
The more relevant question is how provisional management figures were adjusted during consolidation and audit.
Provisional profit after tax of ₦5.760 trillion eventually became audited profit after tax of ₦7.2 trillion.
Further reporting should establish what accounting, consolidation or reconciliation adjustments produced that movement.
Why NNPC’s stronger profit matters
NNPC sits at the centre of Nigeria’s oil production, petroleum supply and public-finance system.
Its profitability therefore matters beyond corporate performance.
A higher dividend potentially increases the value available to its government shareholders, while stronger operating cash flow can improve the company’s capacity to finance projects and meet obligations.
Revenue compression also matters.
NNPC says lower crude prices and reduced petroleum-product sales contributed to the decline, showing that the company remains exposed to commodity prices and changes in Nigeria’s downstream market.
For citizens and the wider economy, the larger question is whether stronger company-level profitability ultimately translates into higher government receipts, increased investment, greater domestic energy supply and improved infrastructure.
NNPC targets higher oil and gas production
NNPC says it plans to raise crude oil production to 2 million barrels per day by 2027 and 3 million barrels per day by 2030.
It is also targeting gas output of 12 billion standard cubic feet per day by 2030.
The company says it intends to mobilise $60 billion in investment across upstream, midstream and downstream operations by 2030.
Those figures remain corporate targets, not deployed capital or guaranteed production outcomes.
NNPC has also reported progress on major gas infrastructure, including completion of the mainline section of the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano pipeline and advancement of the ANOH gas project.
For NNPC, the audited accounts establish a stronger bottom line.
For the Business Intelligence Desk, the remaining accounting question is narrower: what reconciliation and consolidation adjustments moved provisional profit after tax of ₦5.760 trillion to an audited ₦7.2 trillion?