Do you believe it? None of the four refineries in the country has undergone turnaround maintenance for 42 years, according to the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Maikanti Baru
That means that all the past reports about TAM going back to the days of Late General Sani Abacha were mere misinterpretation of some repairs.
Baru made this known in his New Year message released by the Group General Manager, Ndu Ughamadu, in Abuja, on Monday.
However, he said in spite of the challenge, major rehabilitation works were carried out in all the three refineries while, efforts are ongoing to get the original builders of the refineries to carry out TAM on them after securing favourable private funding for the exercise.
Baru disclosed that the Warri Refinery and Petrochemical Company, WRPC, had its Distribution Control System, DCS, successfully upgraded while the Port Harcourt Refining Company, PHRC, had major interventions in Fluid Catalytic Cracking Unit, FCCU and Power Plant Unit, PPU), fixed.
The Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemical Company, KRPC, he explained was undergoing major repairs of its FCCU, Catalytic Reforming Unit, CRU, and Crude Distillation Unit 2, CDU2.
Commenting on the downstream sector, the NNPC boss expressed delight that in spite of the problems of supply shortages experienced in 2018 the corporation was able to rise to the occasion with the support of President Muhammadu Buhari and the resilience and hard work of NNPC staff members.
He said that presently, fuel was available in all corners of the country adding that the Corporation imported a total of 15.874, million metric tonnes of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, otherwise called petrol through the DSDP and the NFSF arrangement in 2018; representing 62 per cent increase over the 2017 supplies of 9.807 metric tonnes.
“As at today, the NNPC has 2.98 billion litres, equivalent to over 59 days sufficiency at 50 million litres daily evacuation,” he said
Baru further stated that the corporation’s depots had been revived and put to use through decanting of over 140 million litres of PMS nationwide, explaining that systems 2B and 2E pipelines supplying petroleum products to South West, South-South and South East Regions had been resuscitated.
On the Industry’s achievement in the year 2018, he disclosed that the Egina project had achieved First Oil at 11.20pm on Dec. 29, 2018 while the Egina Floating Production Storage and Offloading, FPSO, vessels was currently adding 200,000 barrels of oil per day to the country’s crude oil output.
According to him also, Nigeria’s crude oil daily production increased by about 2.09 million barrels in 2018, translating to a nine per cent increment, compared with the 2017 average daily production of 1.86 million barrels adding that the nation had maintained a line of consistent year-on-year improvement.
He explained that the average production from NPDC’s operated assets alone grew from an average of 108,000 of oil per day (bod) in 2017 to 165,000bod in 2018, a feat he described as the strongest production growth within the oil Industry in recent times.
The NNPC GMD posited that the desired results were the outcomes of initiatives his Management team intended, among which were the Asset Management Team, AMT, structure, Strategic Financing, Units Autonomy and security architecture framework.
He assured that NNPC would stick to the Repayment Agreement with the JV Partners while transiting to self-funding IJV modes with the corporations’ partners.
Baru highlighted the achievements of NNPC in the Upstream sector to include: reduction in contracting cycle for Upstream Operations to nine months from an average of 24, even as the corporation targeted a six-month cycle; lowering of production cost from 27 dollar per barrel to 22 dollars per barrel and improving on the security situation in the Niger Delta through constructive engagement and dialogue with relevant stakeholders.
He revealed that in the frontier basins, NNPC had intensified explorations activities in the Benue Trough, with the expected spudding of Kolmani River Well 2 on Jan. 19, 2019.
In the Midstream, the NNPC boss stated that in 2018, Nigeria achieved an average national daily gas production of 7.90bscf, translating to three per cent above the 2017 average daily gas production of 7.67bscf.
