The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has recorded its third consecutive monthly loss in March as the oil firm reported a loss of N33.996bn in the first quarter of this year.

According to the latest monthly financial and operations report for March 2017, the NNPC stated that crude oil production also decreased from 1.84 million barrels per day in January this year to 1.82 million bpd in February.

The Nigerian Product Marketing Company and the corporate headquarters of the national oil firm posted the highest loses in the first quarter, after they lost N52bn and N37.54bn, respectively, dragging down the profits recorded by other subsidiaries of the group.

The Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, Integrated Data Services Limited and National Engineering and Technical Company Limited were among some of the NNPC subsidiaries that made profits in the first quarter, as they recorded N37.17bn, N617m and N2.89bn, respectively as profits.

Among the three refineries, only the Port Harcourt Refining Company posted a profit of N12.04bn in the review period.

The Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company and the Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company recorded N2.42bn and N3.39bn as losses, respectively.

On the slump in oil production, the NNPC said, “In February 2017, crude oil production in Nigeria decreased to 1.82 million bpd, which represents 1.05 per cent decrease relative to January 2017 production and also lagged behind February 2016 performance by 10.97 per cent.”