Thread by @Jarushub

I have seen this being brandished as proof that NNPC cooked books. Insufficient.

There is nothing wrong with impairment reversal. In accounting, a company is required to test its assets for recoverability at a certain interval or when certain economic activities relevant to

it (eg oil price in the case of an oil company) significantly change.

When the carrying value of the asset is higher than the recoverable value, the difference is booked as an impairment expense (not cash pls) to reduce the value of the asset in the balance sheet.

The corresponding entry is booked into P&L (that statement you're seeing up here) to reduce income.

In other words, when a company books an impairment, it reduces its asset value and reduces its profits (or increases it loss). Expense reduces profit (or increases loss),remember

Now, the accounting rule that says that should be done also says it should be reviewed when circumstances or assumptions that led to impairment booking change in subsequent years. This change in circumstances could lead to booking of more impairment or reduction of what has been

booked earlier. And this is what NNPC has done here. A (part of) previous impairment they had booked was reversed (N713b). You need to read note 11 to that statement (I've not seen it) to see the reason for impairment reversal but a common reason for impairment reversal is

change in estimates (oil price, volume, and other assumptions on macro variables) used to calculate the asset recoverable value in the first place.

A relatable analogy: all the debt your business is being owed is N100m and you write off N60m out of it as bad debt because

you have looked at things and think you will never recover that N60m (anytime you hear write-off in accounting, the implication is reduction in asset value and increase in expense). Then 2 years later, from info available to you, you think it is N40m that you will not be able to

recover. The extra N20m you had already written off will be reinstated (reversed). That is, increase by N20m your debtor balance/value (asset) and reduce your expense by same amount. A reduction in expense is technically equal to an increase in income (income not always cash pls)

Impairment booking and reversal is similar to this - for a layman.

Impairment booking and reversal is normal practice in oil & gas accounting being a sector that is sensitive to many macro variables

In any case, even if there was no impairment reversal, NNPC group would still

have a made a profit of N6b from the account I'm seeing up here - although loss of about N236b at company level (ie without subsidiaries accounts consolidated with it).

Okay, I'm now the defender of the universe abi?

LOL. More like explainer of the universe 😊

Update: Seen their note 11 and this is the reason for the impairment reversal. Almost the same as what I guessed in my bad debt analogy. Receivables is the same as debt. They recovered some debts they had thought they would never recover& written off (impaired) in previous yrs