Warri Refinery Gets 90-Day Ultimatum To Resume Full Production

The Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, has given a 90-day ultimatum to the management of the Warri Refining and Petrochemicals Company (WRPC) to commence full production at the facility.

The NNPC chief said there would be no shortage of petroleum products at the filling stations while the refinery is being fixed.

According to the NNPC GMD, “The Warri Refinery wasn’t shut down because of lack of crude supply, rather the refinery was not supplied because it was down, this is a different thing altogether”.

Oil sales account for around 70 percent of government revenue in Africa’s top crude producer, which imports most of the fuel used by its 170 million inhabitants because of the age and inefficiency of its refineries in Warri, Kaduna and Port Harcourt. There is no point getting crude when the refinery is sitting idle.

“The Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) unit had problem and that is why it was shut down”. We are beginning a very hardworking focus on these refineries to make them work properly.

“The reality is that for over 10 and 15 years, no serious maintenance has been done on the plants”, he said. A lot of energies will be built around that and a lot of time is needed to stabilize them.

In his statement, Kachikwu said Nigeria’s hitherto neglected refineries would not be sold, as widely speculated, but oil firms in existing joint ventures with the NNPC would be “invited to support the running of the refineries in order to ensure efficiency”.

He regretted that the pipelines, which were laid 20 to 30 years, had been allowed to degenerate without proper maintenance, “If security, monitoring, and maintenance is tight we should have the pipeline back”, Kachikwu assured.