Port Harcourt, Warri refineries commence production ----NNPC
(Nigeria) The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC,
has said that the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries have commenced preliminary
production of petroleum products after successful test-runs.
Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of
NNPC, Mr Ohi Alegbe, in a statement in Abuja on Wednesday, explained that this
followed successful re-streaming after a nine-month phased rehabilitation by
in-house engineers and technicians.
It stated that PHRC was ramping up its operation to about 60
per cent of its 210,000 barrels per day name plate capacity.
According to the statement, WRPC production is projected to
hit 80 per cent of its installed 125,000 bpd capacity.
It stated that the PHRC was projected to boost the nation’s
local refining capacity with a product yield of five million litres of petrol
per day.
It added that Warri Refinery would contribute 3.5 million
litres of petrol to local refining capacity.
The statement explained that NNPC adopted the phased
rehabilitation after the Original Refinery Builders (ORB), who were initially
contacted for the project, came up with unfavorable terms.
It explained that a decision was taken in 2011 to
rehabilitate all the refineries using the ORB of each of the refineries.
``We were impelled to switch strategy after the ORBs
declined participation and nominated some partners in their stead who came up
with outrageously unfavorable terms’’, it stated.
It stressed that the nominated partners, as sole-bidders,
came up with humongous price offers after two years of thorough and exhaustive
scope of work definition and price negotiations.
It explained that the proxies were also unwilling to provide
post rehabilitation performance guarantees.
``The phased rehabilitation strategy entailed phased and
simultaneous rehabilitation of all refineries using in-house and locally
available resources in line with the spirit and letter of the Nigerian Content
Law. It also involved the use of Original Equipment
Manufacturer representatives to effect major equipment overhaul and
rehabilitation.’’
It stated that the phased rehabilitation, which started in
October 2014 after the required funding stream was established, created a
70-per cent reduction in costs.
It said this had helped largely in mitigating the financing
challenge of refinery rehabilitation.
It stated that with the successful re-streaming of the PHRC
and WRPC, attention had moved to the 110,000 barrels per day Kaduna Refining
and Petrochemicals Company, KRPC.
According to the statement, the KRPC is billed to come on
stream soon.
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