Oando pumps 14 per cent more oil and gas but posts a ₦74.65 billion pre-tax loss

Oando's nine-month results tell two stories at once. The oil and gas business is working better than it has in years. The balance sheet is still eating the gains.

The operations

The company's own release leads with production. Output averaged 42,985 barrels of oil equivalent a day in the nine months to 30 September, up 14 per cent from 37,614. Crude rose 12 per cent to 12,193 barrels a day, gas 13 per cent to 28,689 boepd and natural gas liquids 53 per cent. Facility uptime was 96.1 per cent, from 85 per cent a year earlier, and production operating costs fell 22 per cent to $15.39 a barrel of oil equivalent.

Revenue rose 9 per cent to ₦2.78 trillion. Gross profit jumped to ₦174.5 billion from ₦29.8 billion. Operating profit was ₦159.7 billion, where a year earlier the group had an operating loss of ₦109.7 billion.

Two wells in the seven-well programme, Idu 6ST and Idu 15, are producing. Two workovers are done, two more wells are in progress, and the last, Ogbainbiri, is due to spud in December. Oando has narrowed its full-year production guidance to 40,000 to 45,000 boepd and expects capital spending of $90 million to $100 million. Group Chief Executive Wale Tinubu said the priority for the rest of the year is to progress the drilling programme.

The finance line

The results filed with the Nigerian Exchange, which Nairametrics went through, show where the money went. Finance costs were ₦244.20 billion, of which ₦218.58 billion was bank interest. Finance income fell to ₦8.98 billion from ₦368.69 billion, because last year's figure included ₦321.10 billion of interest on loan receivables and deposits that did not recur. Net finance costs came to ₦235.23 billion, against net finance income of ₦128.01 billion a year earlier.

That turned the operating profit into a pre-tax loss of ₦74.65 billion, compared with a pre-tax profit of ₦19.46 billion in the same period of 2025.

The bottom line still reads as a profit. An income tax credit of ₦181.10 billion, which includes ₦254.40 billion of previously booked tax provisions being reversed, produced profit after tax of ₦106.45 billion. That is 47 per cent below last year's ₦201.31 billion, and it comes from the tax line, not from the business.

The balance sheet

Borrowings fell to ₦2.16 trillion from ₦2.70 trillion at the end of 2025, after ₦792.69 billion of repayments and ₦457.67 billion of new loans. Cash from operations was positive. Shareholders' equity, though, remains negative at ₦512.59 billion. Oando is also selling its 95 per cent stake in Oando Petroleum Development Company to Energia Limited at a base price of $48.45 million, a deal Nairametrics reported as still pending.

The shares closed at ₦31.50 on 30 October, down about 22 per cent this year.

What it means for you

If you hold Oando shares, the headline profit is not the number to watch. Look at operating profit, which is now solidly positive, and at interest costs, which are still larger than that profit. The company is paying down debt, and if it keeps doing so the interest bill falls and the real profit shows through. If it does not, the tax credit will not repeat.

For everyone else, Oando's extra gas is the part that matters. It operates OMLs 60 to 63 in the Niger Delta, the blocks it bought from Eni, and gas from those fields feeds power stations and industry. More gas, and steadier gas, is one of the few things that moves the grid.