The state oil company in Nigeria, Africa’s biggest producer of crude, made a 267 billion naira ($1.34 billion) loss last year, dragged down by its refining division. Sales of 2 trillion naira fell short of expenses of 2.3 trillion naira, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. said in a report of unaudited results published on its website Wednesday. The refining business made a loss of 82 billion naira on revenue of 730 million naira. “The NNPC has made these losses consistently, going by past audits,” Dolapo Oni, the Lagos-based head of energy research at Ecobank Transnational Inc., said in an e-mailed response to questions. “It will take a while to reverse the situation. With lower oil prices the upstream businesses will also face lower revenues and profits.” Nigeria has been battered by crude prices falling to 12-year lows of around $35 a barrel. Africa’s largest economy grew at its slowest […]