The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, has announced that the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries have been rehabilitated over a nine-month period by local engineers and technicians. The corporation said that both plants commenced preliminary production of petroleum products after successful test-runs. While the Port Harcourt refinery will be operating at about 60 per cent of its 210,000 barrels per day capacity, the Warri refinery is expected to produce at 80 per cent of its installed 125,000bpd capacity.

The NNPC said the Port Harcourt refinery was projected to boost the nation’s local refining capacity with a product yield of five million litres of petrol per day, while Warri refinery would contribute 3.5 million litres of petrol. “The phased rehabilitation strategy which entailed phased and simultaneous rehabilitation of all the refineries using in-house and locally available resources in line with the spirit and letter of the Nigerian Content Law, also involved the use of Original Equipment Manufacturer representatives to effect major equipment overhaul and rehabilitation,” stated the corporation.

The phased rehabilitation programme started in October 2014 after the required funding stream was established, which created a 70 per cent reduction in costs and helped to mitigate the financing challenges of refinery’s rehabilitation.

The next in line now is the 110,000 barrels per day Kaduna Refining and Petrochemicals Company which is billed to come on stream soon.