There seems to be no end in sight to the downward
operational performance of Nigeria’s refineries since the beginning of 2017
despite several interventions made to reinvigorate the facilities by the
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation..
The latest monthly oil and gas report released by
the national oil firm showed that the cumulative capacity utilisation of the
nation’s three refineries dropped further from 12.73 per cent in June to 11.94
per cent in July 2017.
On individual performance, the Kaduna Refining
and Petrochemical Company remained dormant for the two consecutive months as it
processed no crude oil in the period under review.
Other refineries, Port Harcourt Refining Company
and Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company, also performed far below
expectation.
While the WRPC moved up marginally in its
performance, processing 1.87 per cent of crude oil in July, as against the zero
output it recorded in June, the PHRC’s capacity utilisation dropped from 26.98
per cent in June to 24.18 per cent in July.
Going by the data provided by the NNPC, no
refinery was able to perform up to 30 per cent, as none of them could utilise
up to half of the crude oil allocated to them in July this year, as had been
the case in many other preceding months.
SUNDAY PUNCH had exclusively reported in
September that the performance of the facilities with respect to the capacity
utilisation dropped by 44.87 per cent, after an analysis of their activities
showed a decline in output from 20.09 per cent in May to 12.73 per cent in
June.
Further findings by our correspondent also showed
that the facilities had been recording consecutive monthly decline with respect
to their cumulative capacity utilisation since January this year.
After recording a consolidated capacity
utilisation of 36.73 per cent in January, the performance of the facilities
maintained decline to 13.46 per cent in March.
The performance moved up to 24.59 per cent in
April 2017, but this was not sustained as it crashed on a monthly basis till it
dropped to 11.94 per cent in July, which was their latest operational
performance as released by the NNPC.
An analysis of the corporation’s latest data
showed that the total crude processed by the three refineries dropped from
231,836 metric tonnes in June to 224,584 MT in July.
Their losses increased from 2.44 per cent in June
to close at 2.59 per cent in July, while their cumulative plant consumption
dropped to 8.30 per cent in the month under review, as against the 10.92 per
cent that was recorded in the preceding month.
As part of plans to revamp the refineries, the
NNPC on several occasions had stated that its 12 Business Focus Areas would
help address the shortcomings at the facilities.
It had repeatedly stated that BUFA would see to
the upgrading of existing refineries and creating the opportunity for refining
expansion; focusing on renewable energy and frontier exploration; revamping the
oil and gas infrastructure; pursuing profitable ventures and common services,
among others.
In September, the NNPC disclosed that it would
shortly close down three of its refineries for a comprehensive rehabilitation
aimed at bringing them back to their nameplate production capacities.
The NNPC’s Group Managing Director, Maikanti
Baru, told reporters in Abuja that the shutdown of the refineries would allow
the corporation to undertake their rehabilitation in ways that were different
from what had been done in the past.
According to Baru, the refineries will come back
on stream as new facilities when the corporation concludes the rehabilitation
project ahead of the country’s plan to exit petroleum products importation in
2019.
“As you know, it has been the perception of the
public that the repairs of the refineries are never done thoroughly. So this
time, our intention is to shutdown the refineries when we are ready, and then
fully bring them back to what they should be as new refineries,” the GMD had
said.
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