NNPC Aims to Supply 20% of Nigeria’s Petrol Demand as Refineries Come Onstream

Nigeria’s national oil company, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) hopes that its domestic refineries can cover 20 percent of Nigeria’s petroleum product needs, the head of refining recently said.

The Group Executive Director of Refining and Petrochemicals, Ian Udoh, stated that he expected to receive six cargoes a month of Nigerian Bonny Light and Escravos crude oil to run 180,000 barrels per day (bpd) or 40 percent, of Nigeria’s total refining capacity.  He said he expected to produce 8 million litres a day of petrol, accounting for about 20 percent of Nigeria’s estimated consumption.

The Port Harcourt complex is expected to start ramping up over the next two weeks but only the newer of the two plants at the site is functional and at 90,000 bpd versus its 150,000 bpd capacity. The 125,000 bpd Warri refinery however resumed this week after maintenance and is expected to run at 60,000 bpd. The last refinery to restart will be the northern Kaduna refinery as it will take about two more weeks to repair the pipeline bringing crude from the oil-rich delta in the south, he added.