Highlights of Total, Conoil, MRS, Eterna's nine-month financials

Four Nigerian downstream firms listed on the Nigerian Exchange Group recorded growth in after-tax profit and sales in the nine months of 2024, which can be attributable to the removal of fuel subsidy.

The firms’ sales jumped by 94.9 percent while after-tax profit grew 66.8 percent during the reviewed period.

In May 2023, President Bola Tinubu announced that Nigeria would end its fuel subsidy, which had been in place for decades. The subsidy was the difference between the projected open market price and the pump price. The government’s decision was controversial and came as a surprise.

As a result, petrol pump prices increased by more than 200 percent which led to a higher cost of transportation and spiked inflationary pressures that escalated a worst cost-of-living crisis in decades.

Three out of the four firms recorded an after-tax profit of N22.93 billion while only Eterna plc recorded an after-tax loss of -N4.58 billion.

Subsidy removal enabled the oil firms to set their own prices and make profits – rather than operate in a regulated market where the government sets the price.

Total Energies, Conoil Plc, MRS Oil, and Eterna Plc recorded cumulative sales of N1.53 trillion in the nine months of 2024 from N784.7 billion in the same period of 2024.

Total sales

The total sales recorded by the four downstream firms surged 94.9 percent to N1.53 trillion in the nine months of 2024 from N784.7 billion in the same period of 2023.

Total Energies revenue surged to N793.9 billion from N422.6 billion and cost of sales grew similarly to N700.2 billion from N366.5 billion.

Conoil revenue surged to N249.1 billion from N137.9 billion and cost of sales grew similarly to N223.6 billion from N120.7 billion.

MRS Oil revenue surged to N248.7 billion from N100.9 billion and cost of sales grew similarly to N229.9 billion from N89.9 billion.