The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has suspended further production of diesel and kerosene at the Warri Refinery and Petrochemical Company.
Consequently, the unit producing kerosene and diesel in the pioneer refining plant has been shut down.
Our correspondent learnt that the action was taken by the management of WRPC after due consultation with and approval of the Abubakar Yar�Adua �led management of the NNPC.
The unit, known as Crude Distil Unit, was shut down last week, according to reliable source in the plant.
Findings by our correspondent showed that the development was sequel to haulage problems occasioned by the suspension of supply of petroleum products through the pipelines from Warri Depot of the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company, a subsidiary of NNPC, to other parts of the country.
It was gathered that all the storage tanks for kerosene and diesel in WRPC were filled, a development which rendered further production of the petroleum products in the plant unnecessary.
Our source in the company said the management of WRPC had contacted Yar�Adua last week that there was no space to further store refined kerosene and diesel in the plant.
The source said Yar�Adua consequently asked WRPC�s management to bring the unit down.
He said, �The PPMC could not evacuate the diesel and kerosene from WRPC as fast as possible because they are doing that with road tankers, you know the quantity that the tankers could carry is limited. This is because supply of petroleum products through the pipelines has been suspended because of the activities of the vandals. All the storage tanks in the plant were filled with kerosene and diesel at a point last week.
�We can only evacuate reasonable quantity of products through the pipelines and that is not possible for now. That is why the option to shut down the CDU was decided upon by the management. The plant will resume further production of kerosene and diesel whenever the tanks are free and available to receive fresh consignments.�