Refineries Resume Kerosene, Diesel Production, NNPC Claims

Chineme Okafor in Abuja
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) yesterday said its refineries in Kaduna, Port Harcourt and Warri had all resumed production of diesel and kerosene.

A statement from the Group General Manager, Public Affairs Division of the NNPC, Ndu Ughamadu, in Abuja stated that the resumption of refining of diesel and kerosene by the refineries would balance the gap in demand and supply of the products in the country.

The statement quoted the Managing Director of Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company (WRPC), Solomon Ladenegan, to have said on the production level of the Warri refinery, that the plant had been doing well since the Crude Distillation Unit (CDU) was improved on on Saturday, January 7, 2017.

Ladenegan, the statement explained, said the refinery resumed production last Saturday at about 10:22hrs, with its functioning CDU.

He said the plant now refines two million litres of kerosene and three million litres of diesel daily.
“This morning, we have pumped the products to PPMC and they have started loading. They are going to load up to 1 million litres of DPK and AGO. The products are there in the tank and we are doing everything to get them to the market,” Ladenegan said in the statement.

It also quoted the Managing Director of the Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC), Dr. Bafred Enjugu, to have stated that the Port Harcourt Refinery was producing three million litres of diesel daily, and undisclosed millions of kerosene.

Enjugu, it explained, said operators of the refinery were happy they rehabilitated the old Port Harcourt Refinery where production of diesel was being carried out by themselves without foreign expertise deployment.

For the Kaduna Refinery, the statement noted that it has also come back to work, producing millions of litres of white products to ease out the situation in supply and distribution of petroleum products nationwide.

It said beside the products from the refineries, the NNPC has made arrangements for additional supply intervention through direct import of petrol, diesel and kerosen to sustain products availability across the country.