Crude oil and condensate production in Nigeria dropped to 1.51 million barrels per day (mbpd) in February 2026, according to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd). The decline was attributed to an outage on the Trans Forcados Pipeline due to integrity issues, startup challenges at Stardeep Agbami GTC 2 and 3 after maintenance, delays at the Sterling Oguali flow station, and sludge management problems at Enyie wells. Despite the dip in output, NNPC Ltd remitted N1.804 trillion to the Federation Account, a significant increase from N726 billion in January.
Total revenue rose to N2.68 trillion in February from N2.57 trillion the previous month, though Profit After Tax (PAT) fell to N136 billion from N385 billion. The company cited improved asset reliability, faster evacuation resolutions, and construction progress on the AKK gas pipeline as factors supporting sector stability. The pipeline is expected to deliver early gas to Abuja. NNPC highlighted increased collaboration with operators and stakeholders as contributing to recovery efforts across key assets.
In February 2026, President Bola Tinubu signed an Executive Order reforming revenue remittance practices. It suspended NNPC's collection of management and frontier exploration fees and mandated full remittance of oil and gas revenues to the Federation Account. An inter-agency committee chaired by the Minister of Finance will oversee implementation.
President Bola Tinubu's decision to sign an Executive Order suspending NNPC Ltd's retention of management and frontier exploration fees marks a rare moment of direct intervention in the financial mechanics of Nigeria's oil sector. The immediate doubling of statutory remittances to N1.804 trillion in February—despite a production drop to 1.51 mbpd—reveals how much revenue was previously held outside the Federation Account, raising questions about the opacity that has long surrounded the NNPC's financial autonomy.
The timing and structure of the order suggest it is less about boosting production and more about enforcing fiscal discipline at a time of strained federal revenues. By mandating full remittance and creating an inter-agency oversight committee led by the Minister of Finance, the administration is attempting to centralise control over oil flows, aligning them with constitutional requirements. This move follows years of criticism over how NNPC managed funds without legislative or public scrutiny. The fact that revenue increased even as output fell underscores that the issue was never just volume—it was transparency.
For ordinary Nigerians, particularly those in oil-producing communities, the real impact lies in whether these reforms translate into more predictable allocations to states and local governments. If sustained, the remittance pattern could improve funding for public services, though it does nothing to address the persistent infrastructure decay that still disrupts production.
This episode fits a broader trend: successive administrations resorting to executive decrees to fix systemic flaws in revenue governance, bypassing structural reforms through legislation.
