The four refineries in Kaduna, Warri and Port Harcourt are expected to restart production before the end of the month after attacks on their feedstock pipelines forced their closure in January, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has said.
According to a Reuters report, NNPC’s Group Executive Director, Refining and Technology Dennis Ajulu, said in Abuja Tuesday that crude supply to the refineries and operations would gradually resume, starting with the Port Harcourt refinery.
Ajulu told Reuters that the 150,000 barrel per day (bpd) Port Harcourt refinery is expected to restart its crude distillation unit on Saturday after receiving crude supplies by sea. This will however be followed by a resumption in supplies through the pipeline.
He said: “The Warri Refinery has no crude. It will take close to 10 days to pile up crude, stock and for Kaduna, maybe we’re another five days away after that.”
Ajulu noted that the pipeline to the 125,000bpd Warri plant could be repaired in four days as long as there are no security constraints, adding however that he expects it to take a bit longer while crude oil will be delivered by sea instead.
The Kaduna Refinery, which can only operate one of its two crude distillation units for now, also receives its feedstock through the Warri plant.
-Leadership