“Refineries Record High Performance in Eight Months” – Report

According to a Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, financial and operations report, the nation’s three refineries witnessed a dramatic increase in refining capacity utilization in March 2016, the first time since August ,2015.
The refineries are the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company (KRPC), Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC 1 & 2), and the Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company (WRPC).

The report, released over the weekend, indicated that the three refineries processed crude at an average capacity utilization of 17.51% in March compared to 1.84% average capacity utilization achieved the previous month.

The highest utilisation rate recorded by the refineries in the last one year (April 2015-March 2016) was in August 2015 when they achieved 24.08 per cent and January 2016, 13.64 per cent, respectively.

The report showed that the refineries recorded 0% capacity utilization for five months out of the 12.

NNPC said the latest improvement in the performance of the refineries was due to success achieved in the repairs of vandalized crude pipelines feeding the refineries.

Further analysis showed that the rise in capacity utilisation boosted domestic fuel requirements.

Petroleum product production (PMS and DPK only) by the domestic refineries in March 2016 increased to 110.51million litres compared to 100.52million litres the previous month.

Capacity utilisation of the refineries is expected to further rise in the coming months following the re-commissioning of the Escravos-Warri-Kaduna pipeline.

All the refineries were in April re-streamed and are now producing almost ten million litres of petrol daily.