Johannesburg, 26 July (Argus) — Nigeria's Senate Joint Committee on Petroleum Resources has said that state-owned oil firm NNPC is solvent.

“I want to report that our interim finding is that NNPC as at today is solvent,” NNPC yesterday quoted committee chairman Senator Lee Maeba as saying.

NNPC on 14 July also denied claims by Nigerian junior finance minister Remi Babalola that the firm was “insolvent” because it owed 450bn Naira ($2.98bn) to the central government in unremitted crude oil receipts.

NNPC's financial position has been put under pressure partly because of delays in funding from the central government, related to its supply of refined products such as gasoline and diesel to the domestic market. The government owed the company N1.156 trillion in petroleum subsidies for these activities, according to NNPC.

Nigeria produced 2.15mn b/d of crude in June.

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