ABUJA (Sundiata Post) – The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Joseph Thlama Dawha, on Thursday raised hope that the nation’s refineries would be back and ready for optimal utilisation in the first quarter of 2016.
Dawha, who made the revelation before the Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream), also hinted that the NNPC has discarded the former arrangement of turn-around maintenance (TAM).
Speaking during the 2015 Budget defence, Dawha assured that all the four refineries would be performing at 90 percent capacity at least by 2016.
“Yes, the refineries will work again at full capacity. We have plans to bring back the refineries to full capacity. By the first quarter of 2016, all the four refineries in Port Harcourt (two of them), Warri and Kaduna will be ready to refine at optimal capacity,” Dawha said.
Dawha, who explained why the NNPC had to abandon the initial TAM programme, said that the Corporation has reverted to local engineers.
He revealed that each time the builders were told to come for maintenance, they would recommend other companies.
“Back in 2011, the strategy then was to use the original builders of the refineries to bring them back into full use. But they all declined the offer.
“Instead, they (builders) would recommend other companies for the maintenance work. At the end of the day, the companies that were recommended would come with outrageous prices for the maintenance.
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“So, we discarded the former idea and arrangement of turn-around maintenance. Now, we have reverted to using our local engineers,” he added.
Earlier, NNPC Coordinator, Planning and Strategy, Dr. Tim Okon, disclosed how the Corporation fared in 2014 “We received a total of 162 million barrels of crude oil. Out of this, 23 million barrels were processed, 76 million barrels were used for exchange, while 63 million barrels were sold,” Okon said.
He revealed that the Corporation is expecting 16 billion litres of oil in 2015.
