The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), yesterday said the Port Harcourt refinery will most likely restart production of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) before the end of the week.
Production activity at the refinery was suspended about three months ago so that the company could carry out technical maintenance of its fluid catalytic cracking unit (FCC).
The plant is the only functional refinery out of the three as it was not affected by the disruptive pipeline vandalisation. Managing Director of the Pipeline Products Marketing Company, a subsidiary of NNPC, Mr. Sulaiman A. Achimugu, who spoke to newsmen in Abuja shortly after the company’s 2003 annual general meeting, said maintenance work at the refinery was almost completed and that production would commence within the week.
“Port Harcourt refinery is coming up and I think within the week it should be able to produce PMS. So far work is going on at the refinery trying to regenerate the fluid catalytic units and after that it should be able to run and make some PMS, possibly about 6 million litres per day”, he said.
The MD who commented on the state of petroleum product supply in the country and the effort to restore the all important Channomi Creek pipeline in the Escravos, said actual work on the pipeline only began a week ago and would last for 10 weeks.
He said the pipeline which was vandalised a year ago took the contractors long time before they enter, but they have finally gained access and started actual repair work since last week.
“Repair work on the pipeline started last week. Surveys were done, damaged spots were identified and we are beginning to do real repair work on the damaged sites. It will take us about 8-10 weeks to complete the repair”, he said.
On the current status of petroleum product supply in the country, the PPMC boss said there is now over 35 days sufficiency.
He said as result of the closure of all the refineries, the country was importing virtually all petroleum products to meet domestic demands, adding that about one and half cargo of imported product are being discharged on a daily basis at the jetty.
“Virtually every product is imported as the refineries are still shut. I have an average product arrival of one and half cargoes a day. We have almost 900,000 metric tones of PMS on the sea waiting to discharge”, Achimugo said.
Speaking on the poor financial performance posted by PPMC during the accounting year (2003), Achimugo said the company had not done badly considering stiff challenges it faced during the period.
“PPMC has done very well because we are fighting two major monsters, the (bigger) of which is vandalisation. Our products are still sold at subsidised rates. When you look at these factors you will see that we have made some good progress”, he said.
According to the operational record of the company, as at December 31, 2003, out of a gross profit of N7.2bn, it posted a loss before taxation of N9.4bn. The record also showed that the company expended about N3.6bn on maintenance and repairs of facilities during the period.
While regretting the frequent losses encountered by the company through vandalised pipeline, the PPMC boss noted that apart from causing product leakage, the incident brings a lot of financial losses to bear on the operations of the oil marketing firm.
“People regard government property as no one’s property that should be scrambled for and so our education of the people is that they should go for what is not theirs”.
He said although there is law in place to penalise pipeline vandals, but that a lot of delays accompanies the prosecution of culprits.
“We have over 500 arrested vandals awaiting trials but the process of bringing them to justice is slow. When there are no punishments, no reprisals, these people are encouraged to continue”, he said.
The MD suggested that as a way to check the ugly incident, legal process should be accelerated so that when a vandal is arrested and sent him to jail it will serve as deterrent to others.