Nigeria's state-owned oil firm NNPC is reassessing the viability of rehabilitating its Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna refineries, chief executive Bashir Ojulari said today.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Opec seminar in Vienna, Ojulari said efforts to restart the refineries have not progressed as planned and are now under review. "A lot of effort has been put in place to see if they could be rejuvenated. Those efforts have not been fully concluded in the way that we want them to be concluded," he said.
NNPC has engineering contracts in place for the rehabilitation of its 210,000 b/d Port Harcourt, 125,000 b/d Warri and 110,000 b/d Kaduna refineries. The company restarted 60,000 b/d of capacity at Port Harcourt late last year but shut it down again in May. It also restarted Warri in December and ramped crude runs to 78,000 b/d before shutting the plant in January.
Ojulari said the company is conducting a "deep dive, life-cycle review" of the projects, which is expected to be completed by the end of the year. "Our ambition is to make sure that we utilise whatever is useful in the structures, but also be free to bring in any new additional elements that can make things work," he said. He added that NNPC must review the projects without falling victim to "sunk cost syndrome".
Ojulari also said NNPC remains committed to increasing its stake in Nigeria's 650,000 b/d Dangote refinery, where it currently holds a 7.2pc interest. The company had previously planned to raise its stake to 20pc.
Ojulari, a former Shell executive, became NNPC chief executive in April, succeeding Mele Kyari.
