refinary

Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, has announced that the Port Harcourt Refining Company now produces five million litres of petrol, while the Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company produces two million litres daily.

During the re-opening of the Bonny-Port Harcourt crude pipeline, Kachikwu made the revelation as a response to the shortfall in petrol supply and the difficulties Nigerians face all over the country in trying to buy the fuel.

The minister assured the populace that the government was doing all it could to address the matter. He added that the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company would begin production soon.

The minister said the NNPC had been able to recover the Escravos to Warri and Bonny to Port Harcourt crude supply pipelines. Kachikwu stated that Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical company was receiving crude and would be back in production like other refineries, to achieve sufficiently in supply and distribution of petrol in the nation.

A commercial governance model system, according to the minister, was introduced into the management of the refineries. That, he believed, was a creative way of bringing investors to come in, work with the team, re-activate and upgrade facilities in these refineries and promote favourable competition in the hydrocarbon value system. “The government will not sell the refineries, contrary to some claims,” Kachikwu said.