Uchenna Izundu
International Editor
ABUJA, Jan. 30 -- Nigeria National Petroleum Corp. will restart operations at its 125,000 b/d refinery in Warri in southwest Nigeria on Feb. 6, a company spokesman told OGJ. The refinery has been idle for the past 2 years.
If the restarted refinery works consistently, and at a high throughput, Nigeria's importation of petroleum products will fall significantly. In the beginning, the Warri facility will operate at 70% of capacity.
Vandalism had halted feedstock from being transported to the refinery through the Chanomi Creek Channel pipeline and NNPC found it difficult to hire international companies to carry out repairs because of safety fears and rising costs (OGJ Online, Aug. 7, 2007). Repairs by a local company were reported to have cost $100 million.
NNPC wholly owns the Warri refinery and also owns two refineries at Port Harcourt, with a total capacity of 210,000 b/d, as well as the 110,000 b/d Kaduna refinery. None of these facilities is operating at capacity. These facilities were sold last year to Blue Star Consortium, but the sale was revoked by President Umaru Yar'Adua after NNPC told the National Assembly it could fix them.
Port Harcourt's fluid catalytic cracking unit has been damaged by power surges and the Kaduna refinery, which also shares the Chanomi Creek Channel pipeline, is without feedstock. Crude is expected to reach Kaduna within the next 3 weeks after Warri is restarted.
In August the Department for Petroleum Resources received 26 applications from private companies wishing to build refineries in Nigeria (OGJ Online, Aug. 20, 2007).
Contact Uchenna Izundu at [email protected].
