To forestall disruption of production in future such as the one that kept Kaduna and Warri Refinery and Petrochemical Companies out of production for over two years, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has said it is working out alternatives.
Both companies were closed for over two years because of the vandalisation of the pipeline that conveys crude to them at Chanomi Creek on the Escravos route.
The options being looked at will enable KRPC and WRPC to continue to receive supplies of crude oil should the incident that occasioned the shut-down repeat itself, according to Engr. Onochie Anyaoku, Group Executive Director in charge of Refinery and Petrochemicals at NNPC.
Anyaoku, who stood in for Group Managing Director of NNPC, Abubakar Lawal Yar�Adua, during a news briefing after a facility tour of KRPC at the weekend, said one of the choices being explored was to restore crude supply from Ughelli while another was to move the unrefined product from Port-Harcourt to Kaduna and Warri.
Answering questions from newsmen relating to measures being taken to forestall the reoccurrence of the destruction of the Chanomi pipeline, Anyaoku remarked: �The threat is not completely removed.
We are engaging companies nominated by the community (where the disruption occurred) to secure the pipelines to avoid a reoccurrence.
NNPC is not resting on its oars. �We�re working with Shell to restore crude supply of100,000 barrels of crude from Ughelli for Warri and Kaduna by July ending. It will reduce dependence on Chanomi and ensure adequate flexibility if anything happens to Chanomi.�
In addition, he said, �We are evaluating the possibility of moving crude from Port-Harcourt to supply Kaduna and Warri with existing facilities.
With these, the threat of closing down arising from Chanomi Creek will be reduced.� Hinting at a more inclusive privatization of the refinery in future, Anyaoku said the restreaming of the Kaduna refinery was a significant milestone towards the recovery of the refining and petroleum downstream sector, because since the present regime, there has been a significant shift in policy thrust of government from privatizing downstream sector to �managed privatization� which considers all stakeholders, such as NNPC. According to him, �The (previous) privatization of the refinery was essentially driven from outside NNPC to ensure that the facilities were profitable for buyers. The process is now significantly different.� But NNPC�s Group General Manager, Public Communication, Dr. Levi Ajuonuma, claimed that Yar�Adua�s representative didn�t say anything about privatization. Anyaoku however restated that the corporation had never been against privatization and that the Liquefied Natural Gas project was a model. He said there had been a significant reduction in the importation of refined petroleum products since the restreaming of the refineries, and that even at full production, Nigeria would still be importing them.
According to him, the only way ro end importation was for the country to build more refineries.
Describing Nigeria�s refining status as �still the best in West Africa,� he said the ultimate goal of the corporation was to be an exporter of refined products. To demonstrate the efficiency and capability of the NNPC staff to manage the refineries, he announced that the FCC (fluid catalytic cracking) unit of Warri Refinery and Petrochemical Company was commissioned on Friday and that work was going on to ensure the integrity of the FCC unit of KRPC before its startup in six weeks.
The restreamed KRPC is now producing at 75 per cent capacity with 1.4 million litres of petrol, enough to load 47 trucks; 1.3 million litres of kerosene and 1.8 million litres of diesel being lifted daily.
Anyaoku said the production capacity that could be guaranteed for the rest of the year was however 60 per cent. This would subsequently be upped to 75 and then 85 per cent, he said, pointing out that it was impossible to produce at 100 per cent of installed capacity.
He disclosed that with the arrival of the heavy crude being imported from Venezuela in three months, the production of lubricating oil, black oil and a number of other by-products from the petrochemical plant would commence.
Once that is done, he said, business activities in the north, which had gone comatose for some years, would flourish again. He said the contract for the Turnaround Maintenance of KRPC was yet to be awarded, explaining that there was a recommendation for a company that would do the job. The request, pointed out, was still at the presidency.
Mar312008