Data from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation have shown that no barrel of crude oil was refined by the nation’s refineries in 12 months but incurred a combined operating expense of N142.07bn.
The NNPC blamed the declining operational performance of the refineries to the ongoing overhaul aimed at further enhancing their capacity utilisation once completed.
The refineries, which are located in Port Harcourt, Kaduna and Warri, have a combined installed capacity of 445,000 barrels per day but have continued to operate far below the installed capacity.
Nigeria relies mostly on the importation of refined petroleum products as its refineries have remained in a state of disrepair for many years.
“No white product (Premium Motor Spirit and Dual Purpose Kerosene) was produced in June 2020 and apparently for the past 12 consecutive months.
The lack of production is due to ongoing rehabilitation works at the refineries,” the NNPC said in its monthly report for June.
The Corporation disclosed that the combined value of output by the refineries (at import parity price) for the month of June amounted to about N40m.
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“No associated crude plus freight cost for the three refineries since there was no production but operational expenses amounted to N10.27bn. This resulted in an operating deficit of N10.23bn by the refineries,” it added.
The Kaduna refinery incurred an operating expense of N60.20bn from July 2019 to June 2020, according to the NNPC data.
Port Harcourt refinery’s operating expense in the period under review was N43.37bn while that of Port Harcourt refinery was N38.49bn.
The Group Managing Director, NNPC, Mallam Mele Kyari, said on July 30 that the refineries were all idle, adding that the country was importing practically every petroleum product being consumed in the country.
In June, 767.42 million litres of PMS were supplied into the country through the Direct Sale Direct Purchase arrangement as against the 495.10 million litres of PMS supplied in May.
Kyari, who took over the NNPC leadership in July 2019, had reiterated his plan to revamp the refineries and end fuel importation by 2023.
