NNPC plans new100,000bpd brown refineries for Port Harcourt, Warri

About 100,000 barrels per day brown refineries are being planned by Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) as part of its refinery collocation initiative designed to boost local refining capacity to end the era of petroleum products importation.

 The refineries are to be collocated in Port Harcourt and Warri Refineries. This was disclosed in the current NNPC News, the Corporation’s in-house newsletter

Speaking on efforts being made to achieve self-sufficiency in local refining besides the rehabilitation of the refineries, Maikanti Baru explained that a group of investors had commenced the process of relocating a refinery that used to be owned by BP from Turkey to Nigeria to be installed near the Port Harcourt Refinery under the NNPC refinery collocation initiative.

“Our collocation initiative aimed at getting private sector investors to bring in brownfield refineries so that they can share facilities is also yielding results.

“For example, there is one that is going to be brought in from Turkey to be located near the Port-Harcourt Refinery. It’s not a modular refinery; it’s a normal refinery with about 100,00bpd capacity. It was owned by BP, but it has been sold off now to the companies that want to bring it over from Turkey to install it here”, he stated.

 He further explained that a similar plan to establish a brownfield refinery near the Warri Refinery was also in the offing.

“There is another one of about the same size being looked at to be sited near the Warri Refinery. But the one for Port-Harcourt is at a more advanced stage. Our drive at the NNPC, as a leader in the industry, is to expand our local refining capacity and make Nigeria a global refining hub”, he said.

 Nigeria  has become   a net  importer of petroleum  products  despite  the fact  that  she export an average of 2.1 million  barrels of crude  oil  per day.

   The  450,000  barrels  refineries  located  in Kaduna a Port  Harcourt and Warri  have  remained  commateos   for several   years  thereby  causing  the  country  to depend  almost   90  per  cent on  imported   products

The NNPC has  consistently said it  would not relent in its quest to get the nation’s four refineries back to their optimal, nameplate capacities.

 The NNPC boss stated that as part of the ongoing reforms in the  organisation, the corporation had been holding far-reaching discussions with some consortia to get the best funding options towards the refineries’ overhaul.

He added that the corporation, under his watch, had recorded remarkable progress in resuscitating some of the nation’s critical downstream infrastructure, a development which had ensured the seamless supply of products Nationwide, until the recent past hiccups which are now under control.

“Since coming on board, we have made the revamp of our abandoned assets and critical downstream infrastructure a key component of our corporate vision of 12 Business Focus Areas (BUFA),” he stated.

He said over the last few months, several crude oils, petroleum products and natural gas pipelines were resuscitated while more than half of the nation’s 21 strategic depots were also upgraded.

He decried acts of pipeline vandalism, crude oil theft and sabotage which he noted had resulted in huge loss of revenue, lives and property as well as damage to the environment., and called on the security agencies and other stakeholders nationwide to collaborate with the corporation in its on-going campaign against the act of sabotage on the nation’s oil and gas facilities.