Nigerian refineries damaged beyond turnaround maintenance – NNPC

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) says the nation’s refineries have been damaged beyond the usual turnaround maintenance (TAM).

It said this accounted for the prolonged neglect of their overhauling.

However, to revamp them,

The national oil, however, said it was embarking upon total rehabilitation of the plants, which despite currently being non-functional, gulp about N10bn monthly in payment of salaries and other in-built costs.

The Managing Director of the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company (KRPC), Mr Ezekiel Osarolube, stated that the corporation had begun the rehabilitation of all the facilities.

He spoke on Wednesday, the third day of the virtual Oil Trading and Logistics (OTL) Africa Downstream Expo 2020, with the theme ‘Petroleum Refining Trends and Outlook for Tomorrow’s Energy Supply’.

He explained that there was now a private/public arrangement in the revamping of the refineries, adding that getting them back on stream remained a priority of the NNPC.

Osarolube said, “The first phase of this project is to raise capacity and second phase is to upgrade and modernise to meet current trends; so, we need time to get there.

“There’s a difference between turnaround maintenance and what we are doing now. The traditional TAM, which the whole world knows is usually statutory, which is done two to three years, is to open and clean the system.

“But because of the long neglect, we have gone beyond that level of turnaround. What we are talking about now is comprehensive rehabilitation, which will involve replacing very obsolete equipment that can bring the plants back to optimum performance,” he stated.

He also said the journey to make the plants resume production was ongoing, adding that the corporation had a road map being followed religiously to ensure all the slippages were rectified.

“These steps are going on in Warri, Kaduna and Port Harcourt and we have a roadmap we follow religiously.

“Every month, we have a stakeholders’ meeting to review where we are and if there is any slippages and how to recover because top management is focused on this project as the number one project of the NNPC.

“We are dealing with people who are good in the business and they also want to recoup their money. All the fears will be taken care of and everyone will be proud of the NNPC.”

The Executive Secretary of the African Refiners and Distributors Association (ARA), a pan-African organisation for the African downstream oil sector, Mr Anibor Kragha, said while the NNPC was on the right path, it should focus on combining rehabilitation and upgrade to cleaner fuel specs to sell across Africa since there’s a huge market for it.

He said, “We are going to have a population explosion in the next two decades and we are going to need an increased amount of energy to meet their demands.

“Renewables are going to grow during that period. Notwithstanding what happens, we are going to need a lot of crude oil but we need to focus on cleaner fuels. That’s why we are calling for Africa specific fuels by 2030.”