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Refineries can’t account for N2.44bn crude — NNPC

By on September 14, 2015

The nation’s refineries wasted or illegally disposed of 258,810 barrels of crude, which they received for processing in April and May this year, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has disclosed.

According to the petroleum information report, the refineries received the crude oil for the two months but failed to produce any refined product during the period.

The report obtained on Friday specifically indicated that the Port Harcourt Refining Company, Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company Limited, and Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company Limited, which received the crude, could not account for the supplies for the period.

As of Friday, the price of crude oil was $47.96 per barrel. Going by this, the cost of the 258,810 barrels of crude oil supplied to the refineries in the two months will therefore be $12.41m.

The Central Bank of Nigeria naira exchange rate to the United States dollar was 197 on Friday. Therefore, the naira equivalent for the supplied crude to the three refineries during the period under review is N2.44bn.

The NNPC stated in the report, that the refineries, which received 204,720 barrels of crude in April, failed to churn out any refined product.

It also said that the only refinery, WRPC, which got 54,090 barrels of crude in May, did not process anything either for the month.

Therefore, the total volume of crude oil supplied to the three refineries in April and May was given as 258,810 barrels, but nothing was recorded as processed petroleum products by the firms during the period.

For instance, the report stated that in April, the three refineries received 204,720 barrels of crude oil and had total opening stock of 1.164 million barrels of crude.

In the same month, the total crude available for processing was given as 1.369 million barrels but nothing was processed by the national oil firms in April, the NNPC report stated.

While detailing the operations of the refineries and their various crude balance for April, the NNPC said, “This month, 204,720 barrels of crude oil and slop was received by the three refineries, KRPC, PHRC and WRPC.

“With an opening stock of 1.164 million barrels, the total crude oil available for processing was 1.369 million barrels out of which zero barrel was processed. The respective average capacity utilisation during the month was 0.00%, 0.00% and 0.00% for the KRPC, PHRC and WRPC, respectively.”

Although only the WRPC received crude, 54,090 barrels in May, the Warri refinery and Port Harcourt refinery had combined opening stock of 484,240 barrels of crude for the month under review.

The volume of crude that was available to them for processing was 538,330 barrels, out of which nothing was processed.

In detailing the operations of the refineries and their various crude balance for the month of May 2015, the NNPC said in the report, “This month, 54,090 barrels of Seplat crude oil were received by the WRPC.

“The PHRC and WRPC had an opening stock of 484,240 barrels, total crude oil available for processing was 538,330 barrels out of which zero barrel was processed. The respective average capacity utilisation during the month was 0.00%, 0.00% and 0.00% for the KRPC, PHRC and WRPC, respectively.”

The NNPC, however, stated that in March, “zero barrels of slop was received by the three refineries.”

It noted that “with an opening stock of 1.164 million barrels, the total crude oil available for processing (in March) was 1.164 million barrels out of which zero barrel was processed. The respective average capacity utilisation during the month was 0.00%, 0.00% and 0.00% for the KRPC, PHRC and WRPC, respectively.”

The corporation, on many occasions in the past, had stated that the inability of the refineries to process crude was due to the turnaround maintenance being carried out on them.

The new management of the NNPC, however, stated that the refineries were now processing crude oil, although none of them was working at optimum capacity.

On July 28, the NNPC announced that the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries had been successfully re-streamed after a nine-month rehabilitation carried out by its in-house engineers and technicians.

The corporation said that both plants had commenced preliminary refining of petroleum products after a successful test-run, adding that while the PHRC was ramping up its operation to about 60 per cent of its 210,000 barrels per day capacity, the WRPC production was projected to hit 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 that of Warri would contribute 3.5 million litres of petrol.

Reacting to the development, the Chairman, Petroleum Downstream Group of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr. Emmanuel Osagie, told our correspondent that the poor management of the refineries had resulted in their inability to process crude oil.

He also said that some of the crude oil supplied to the refineries might have been used in the crude for product swap arrangement adopted by the NNPC, adding that it was a good thing to hear that the government recently cancelled the oil swap model.

 

[Punch]