Petroleum refineries in Nigeria have been retooled and utilisation capacity has been raised to 60 per cent ahead of planned turnaround maintenance, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has said.
Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, NNPC; Ohi Alegbe made the disclosure in a statement released in Abuja on Thursday.
Alegbe quoted, NNPC Group Managing Director (GMD) Mr Andrew Yakubu, as saying that the refineries had been raised to 60 per cent utilisation capacity of their nameplate capacity.
Yakubu said there was a setback in the plan to get the original builders of the refineries to undertake their scheduled turnaround maintenance, because the expatriates would not come to Nigeria due to the security challenges facing the country.
Yakubu said NNPC has therefore deployed in-house expertise to fix critical units of the refineries which had increased their capacity utilisation to 60 per cent.
“The recent improved performance of our refineries, including the re-streaming of the secondary units, especially the Fluid Catalytic Cracking Units, is contributing to a substantial reduction of petroleum products into the country,” Yakubu said.
He added that the refineries were still facing constraint in capacity utilisation due to crude oil supply challenges as a result of pipeline vandalism. He explained that NNPC was still working with the companies recommended by the original builders to outline the scope of work.
He assured that negotiations are ongoing to ensure that the nation got value for every kobo to be expended on the project.
