NNPC, the state-owned Nigerian oil company, is looking to revive the three state refineries in Africa’s top crude producer and plans to select technical equity partners to help resume operations at the facilities that have been idled for years.
In an update on Nigeria’s refineries, NNPC said that it “continues to make measured progress in the comprehensive technical and commercial review of the nation’s three refineries — Warri, Port Harcourt, and Kaduna.”
These three refineries have a total processing capacity of 445,000 barrels per day (bpd) but have not been processing any crude for years despite Nigeria’s efforts to attract investments.
The newest and only operational refinery in the biggest African producer in OPEC is the privately-owned Dangote refinery, the biggest in Africa with a capacity of 650,000 bpd, which began operations last year.
Meanwhile, the state refineries have remained idle and haven’t contributed to Nigeria’s goal of becoming independent of fuel imports.
NNPC’s group CEO Bashir Bayo Ojulari said on X this week that “We are looking ahead with optimism to ensure our refineries operate effectively. We are dedicating significant time to a detailed review and are eager to implement our insights.”
NNPC is currently carrying out a technical and commercial review of the three state refineries. In the next phase, the state oil firm will engage with technical equity partners and move to implement repairs, according to the update by Ojulari.
At an energy conference in Nigeria earlier this week, NNPC reiterated its commitment to develop and revamp its downstream business.
“At NNPC, we are committed to deploying additional infrastructure across the oil and gas value chain while revamping our existing downstream infrastructure nationwide,” Ojulari said.
While NNPC is looking to resurrect the state refineries, the private Dangote refinery has recently run into operational challenges, claims of sabotage, and workers’ strikes.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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