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NNPC to collocate 2000bpd refineries in Port-Harcourt, Warri

By Stanley Opara (Lagos) and Kingsley Jeremiah (Abuja)
15 August 2018   |   3:16 am
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has said arrangement has been concluded for a new 100,000-barrels-per-day brownfield refinery each in Port-Harcourt, Rivers State and Warri, Delta State. According to the Group Managing Director of NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Baru, the plan is part of the corporation’s initiative designed to boost local refining capacity to end petroleum…

The Minister of State for Pretroleum Resources Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu PHOTO: TWITTER/NNPC

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has said arrangement has been concluded for a new 100,000-barrels-per-day brownfield refinery each in Port-Harcourt, Rivers State and Warri, Delta State.

According to the Group Managing Director of NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Baru, the plan is part of the corporation’s initiative designed to boost local refining capacity to end petroleum products importation.

Nigeria is reportedly the only member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) that solely imports Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise known as petrol, as well as the largest importer of the product in the world.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the downstream of the Nigeria oil and gas sector imported N812 billion of PMS in the first quarter of 2018.

Baru disclosed in an interview published in the NNPC News, the corporation’s in-house newsletter, that besides the rehabilitation of the Port-Harcourt and Warri refineries, a group of investors had commenced the process of relocating a refinery that used to be owned by BP from Turkey to Nigeria to be installed near the Port Harcourt Refinery under the NNPC refinery collocation initiative.

“Our collocation initiative aimed at getting private sector investors to bring in brownfield refineries so that they can share facilities is also yielding results.

“For example, there is one that is going to be brought in from Turkey to be located near the Port-Harcourt Refinery.

It’s not a modular refinery; it’s a normal refinery with about 100,00bpd capacity.

It was owned by BP, but it has been sold off now to the companies that want to bring it over from Turkey to install it here,” he stated.

Baru further explained that a similar plan to establish a brownfield refinery near the Warri Refinery was also in the offing.

“There is another one of about the same size being looked at to be sited near the Warri Refinery.

But the one for Port-Harcourt is at a more advanced stage.

Our drive at the NNPC, as a leader in the industry, is to expand our local refining capacity and make Nigeria a global refining hub,” he said.

Meanwhile, the NNPC has said that the execution of the strategic Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano gas pipeline project is progressing under the original concept of 100 percent contractor-financing model.

In an apparent response to some media report of a possible resort to ‘proceed of gas tariffs’ as new means of funding because of purported collapse of negotiation with Chinese lenders, the NNPC said the contractor-financing arrangement was intact, noting that the Engineering Procurement Construction (EPC) contractors and possible lenders were currently in Dubai to discuss the financing terms.

The corporation explained in a statement by its Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Ndu Ughamadu, that the application of revenue generated from the tariff is purely for loan repayment since the project financing is “contractor finance”.

“We further clarify that part of the approvals obtained from the Federal Government is to fund the implementation of the project front-end activities tagged ‘Early Works’ in order to continue to move the project forward pending the conclusion of the financing negotiations,’’ the corporation explained.

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