The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, said it would embark on a comprehensive rehabilitation of the country’s three refineries located in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna to achieve optimal capacity utilization in 2017.

NNPC disclosed this in a statement signed by Mr Ndu Ughamadu, the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division in Abuja on Tuesdays after the Annual General Meetings of the three refineries.
The Chief Operating Officer, Refineries of the NNPC, Mr. Anibor Kragha, stated that the Corporation was determined to move away from the approach of quick fixes and undertake a comprehensive revamp of the plants.

“The plan for next year is to get the comprehensive rehabilitation programme done.

“The situation is like having three cars in your garage that have not been maintained for 15 to 20 years while you expect optimal performance from them.

“Changing one fuel pump here, one compressor there is not helpful. What we are doing now is to step back and take a holistic approach and do a full rehabilitation of all the refineries.” he said

He added that once the exercise was achieved, the refineries in due course would draw up a chart for routine Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) Programme as and when due.

On the earlier plan to have other refineries co-located with the existing refineries, Kragha explained that though the plan was still on course, none of the projected co-location refineries would come on stream in 2017 based on existing timeline for assemblage of the plants.

On the plan by Port Harcourt Refinery to commence the production of Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATK) for domestic consumption, the COO explained that the refinery was a few steps away from hitting the mark.

‘’We are very close; we have done tests with some of the key marketers. We have achieved all the parameters, we just want to be 110 percent certain,’’ he said.

Earlier in his remark, Managing Director of the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemicals Company, Mr. Mukhtar Maiha, said KRPC was working towards a target of 75 per cent capacity utilization in the New Year based on projected supply of one cargo of crude oil per month.

Also, the Managing Director of Warri Refining and Petrochemicals Company, Mr. Solomon Ladenegan, noted that despite the hostile operating environment fraught with incessant cases of pipeline pulverization and outright product theft, the refinery was looking forward to better days ahead.