NNPC shuts down Kaduna, Port Harcourt refineries over pipeline vandalism
Wed Jan 20, 2016 03:43:pm Business
3.2K By sosa hills
Worried by the pipeline attacks by some persons, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), on Wednesday, announced the operational shutdown of the Port Harcourt and Kaduna refineries owing to crude supply challenges.
A statement by the corporation and signed by Ohi Alegbe, the Public Affairs Manager, disclosed that the plants were shut simultaneously on Sunday after the Bonny-Okrika crude supply line to the Port Harcourt refinery and the Escravos-Warri crude supply line to the Kaduna refinery suffered breaches.
Nigeria's minister of power Babatunde Fashola said on Tuesday the country was losing some $2.3 million (2.1 million euros) a day to attacks on gas facilities and lost electricity production. The military said separately it would no longer tolerate the sabotage and blamed it on "criminal elements who are bent on destroying the nation's strategic assets".
Supporters of former Niger Delta militant Government Ekpemupolo, also known as "Tompolo", are believed to have been behind a series of strikes on pipelines in Delta state at the weekend. A court in Lagos last Thursday ordered his arrest on theft and money laundering charges totalling more than $175 million (161 million euros). Despite being Africa's number one oil producer, Nigeria has relied on imports of petroleum products because of a lack of domestic refining capacity. Fuel shortages are commonplace.
But as part of moves to overhaul the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the government has been working to improve capacity at the country's under-performing state-owned refineries. The four facilities in Port Harcourt, the Delta town of Warri and Kaduna have a combined capacity to process 445,000 barrels of crude per day. Throughout last year they were operating at just a fraction of that.
The NNPC stated that before the closure, the Port Harcourt refinery was recording a daily petrol yield of over 4.1 million litres while Kaduna refinery was posting a daily petrol production of about 1.3 million litres.
The statement noted that the Warri Refining and Petrochemicals Company is still on stream and producing a little above 1.4 million litres of petrol per day.
The corporation assured that it had put in place strategies to guarantee unimpeded country-wide availability of petroleum products.
A statement by the corporation and signed by Ohi Alegbe, the Public Affairs Manager, disclosed that the plants were shut simultaneously on Sunday after the Bonny-Okrika crude supply line to the Port Harcourt refinery and the Escravos-Warri crude supply line to the Kaduna refinery suffered breaches.
Nigeria's minister of power Babatunde Fashola said on Tuesday the country was losing some $2.3 million (2.1 million euros) a day to attacks on gas facilities and lost electricity production. The military said separately it would no longer tolerate the sabotage and blamed it on "criminal elements who are bent on destroying the nation's strategic assets".
Supporters of former Niger Delta militant Government Ekpemupolo, also known as "Tompolo", are believed to have been behind a series of strikes on pipelines in Delta state at the weekend. A court in Lagos last Thursday ordered his arrest on theft and money laundering charges totalling more than $175 million (161 million euros). Despite being Africa's number one oil producer, Nigeria has relied on imports of petroleum products because of a lack of domestic refining capacity. Fuel shortages are commonplace.
But as part of moves to overhaul the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the government has been working to improve capacity at the country's under-performing state-owned refineries. The four facilities in Port Harcourt, the Delta town of Warri and Kaduna have a combined capacity to process 445,000 barrels of crude per day. Throughout last year they were operating at just a fraction of that.
The NNPC stated that before the closure, the Port Harcourt refinery was recording a daily petrol yield of over 4.1 million litres while Kaduna refinery was posting a daily petrol production of about 1.3 million litres.
The statement noted that the Warri Refining and Petrochemicals Company is still on stream and producing a little above 1.4 million litres of petrol per day.
The corporation assured that it had put in place strategies to guarantee unimpeded country-wide availability of petroleum products.
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