Refineries to resume by the end of the month

Nigeria’s refineries are expected to restart
before the end of the month after attacks on their
feedstock pipelines forced their closure in January,
the head of refining at the state oil company said on
Tuesday.
The oil company halted crude flows to the refineries
around mid-January after the key pipelines feeding
the plants were attacked. The refineries were then
shut down a few days later.
The 150 000 barrel per day (bpd) Port Harcourt
refinery is expected to restart its crude distillation
unit on Saturday after receiving crude supplies by sea
to be followed by a resumption in pipeline supplies.
Meanwhile, it is able to produce gasoline from its
fluid catalytic converter.
“The Warri refinery has no crude. It will take close to
10 days to pile up crude stock and for Kaduna maybe
we’re another five days away after that,” Dennis
Ajulu, executive director of refining and technology at
state oil firm NNPC, told Reuters.
Ajulu said the pipeline to the 125 000 bpd Warri plant
could be repaired in four days provided there were no
security contraints, but expected it to take a bit
longer and crude would be delivered by sea instead.
The Kaduna refinery, which can only operate one of
its two crude distillation units for now, receives its
feedstock via the Warri plant.
On top of being neglected for years, the refineries
have always had supply problems due to attempts to
steal oil via pipeline taps. It forced the state firm to
switch to expensive crude deliveries by sea that cost
more than $7 per barrel.
President Muhammadu Buhari is keen to revamp the
plants in order to wean the country off gasoline
imports but a return of some militancy in the oil-rich
Niger Delta region could scupper these plans if the
pipelines become regular targets.