The consolidated operational performance of Nigeria’s three
refineries based on their capacity utilisation was below 15 per cent in 2016,
the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation said.
Nigeria’s refineries are the Warri Refining and
Petrochemical Company located in Delta State, Port Harcourt Refining Company in
Rivers State, and the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company in Kaduna
State.
The facilities got 445,000 barrels of crude oil on a daily
basis for the 12-month period, but refined less than 15 per cent of this volume
on average.
Specifically, the NNPC stated that the combined capacity
utilisation of the plants from January to December last year was 13.75 per
cent.
Their worst performance was recorded in February, after they
recorded a capacity utilisation of 1.72 per cent for the month, the national
oil firm said.
It stated that the refineries’ best operational delivery
with respect to crude refining was in October as they posted a capacity
utilisation of 23.53 per cent.
On individual performance, an analysis of the NNPC’s latest
report showed that the WRPC was dormant for five months last year as it did not
refine or process a drop of crude oil in January, February, July, November and
December.
Similarly, the KRPC was dormant for six months in 2016; it
failed to process any crude oil in February, March, June, July, November and
December.
Only the PHRC was able to process crude oil for 11 months in
2016. It did not process crude oil in September last year.
The NNPC stated that the total crude processed by the three
local refineries for December 2016 was 141,998 metric tonnes (1,041,129
barrels).
This, it said, translated to a combined yield efficiency of
82.44 per cent compared to crude processed in November 2016 of 232,768MT
(1,706,655 barrels), which translated to a combined yield efficiency of 87.08
per cent.
It said, “For the month of December 2016, the three
refineries produced 121,555MT of finished petroleum products out of 141,998MT
of crude processed at a combined capacity utilisation of 7.55 per cent compared
to 12.78 per cent combined capacity utilisation achieved in the month of
November 2016.
“The adverse performance was due to crude pipeline vandalism
in the Niger Delta region coupled with ongoing refineries revamp. However, the
three refineries continue to operate at minimal capacity. Only the PHRC
processed crude during the month of December 2016.”
Commenting on the development, the Director, Emerald Energy
Institute, University of Port Harcourt, Prof. Wumi Iledare, told our
correspondent that the oil and gas sector needed to be restructured in order to
enhance not just the output of refineries but that of the industry as a whole.
Iledare noted that the governance structure of the sector
was weak and that this had permeated virtually all the facets of the oil and
gas industry, adding that a functional regulatory framework should be put in
place.
He urged the Federal Government to seek the inputs of
professionals, as well as train operators manning key positions in the industry
in order to get the best from them and boost the performance of the sector.
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