The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation
pumped a total of N81.41bn into the nation’s refineries between January and August this year.
A report from the corporation which contains this figure however indicates that the facilities refined no drop of crude throughout this period.
With a revenue of N6.54bn and a total expense of N81.41bn, the facilities ended up with a deficit of N78.87bn, according to statistics in the just released August 2020 report of the NNPC.
It also showed that the revenue, expense and deficit of the Kaduna refinery during the period were N6.22bn, N33.61bn and N27.39bn respectively.
Similarly, Warri refinery earned a revenue of N257m, incurred an expense of N22.23bn and posted a deficit of N21.98bn during the same period.
For 13 months, the facilities were running without refining any crude oil.
Data from the consolidated refineries operations put the volume of crude processed by the facilities from August 2019 to August 2020 at zero metric tonnes.
With a cumulative plant capacity of 445,000 barrels per day, the facilities recorded a capacity utilisation of zero per cent throughout the 13-month period.
The nation has been importing the bulk of its refined petroleum products for many years.
The Federal Government last week said Nigeria would soon resume the importation of petroleum products from Niger Republic.
The national oil firm again explained in its latest monthly report that the declining operational performance of Nigeria’s refineries was attributable to ongoing revamping of the facilities.
It said the revamping of the facilities was expected to further enhance their capacity utilisation once completed.
Operators in the downstream oil sector as well as economists have repeatedly called for a fast revamp of Nigeria’s refineries in order to halt the continued importation of refined petroleum products.