Early hopes of Nigeria’s refining capacity growing by 1,862,000 million barrels per day (bpd) has further been dashed as 40 firms are currently in possession of dormant refinery license, a Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) refinery status report has revealed.
Latest data from the DPR on the status of refinery licenses as at May 2021, further revealed that the 40 refineries are all with no active refinery license/approval.
The DPR refinery license status report indicated that as at May 2021, a total of 68 refineries license and approval had been granted, out of which 40 are inactive.
A further breakdown of the number of license and approval granted by categories are; eight License to Establish(LTE), 25 not active License to Establish(LTE), 19 Approval to Construct/Relocation(ATC/R), 15 not active ATC/R and 1 License to Operate active license/approval.
The 40 refineries with not active refineries licenses/approval are; Platinum Hydrocarbon Resources Mondonat Nigeria Limited, Southfield Petrochemical and Refinery Limited, Don Mac Limited, Shepha Petroleum and Petrochemicals Company Limited, Energia Limited, Associated Worldwide Company Limited, All Grace Energy Limited, Kainji Resources Limited, Aiteo Energy Resources Limited.
The rest include; Niger Delta Petroleum Resources and Petrochemical Limited, RG Shinjin Petrochemicals Limited, Jil-Amber Consortium PHRC, Dee Jones, Hi-Rev Oil Limited, Starex Petroleum Refinery Limited, Eko Petrochem & Refining Company Limited, Petrolex Oil & Gas Limited, Ikwe-Onna Refinery Limited, Clean Waters Refinery, Southwest Refineries and Petrochemicals Company Limited, Obat Refinery Limited, Antonio Oil Company Limited.
An analysis of data collated from NNPC’s monthly reports revealed that all the refineries did not refine crude oil from July 2019 to January 2021.
The refineries, which are located in Port Harcourt, Kaduna and Warri, have a combined installed capacity of 445,000 barrels per day but have continued to operate far below the installed capacity.
The country relies largely on importation of refined petroleum products as its refineries have remained in a state of disrepair for many years despite several reported repairs.
In 2019, Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company Limited only processed crude in one month (June); Port Harcourt Refining Company Limited in two months (February and March); and Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company Limited in four months (January, February, March and May).
The Kaduna refinery incurred an operating deficit of N64.84bn from July 2019 to January 2021, according to the NNPC data. [THE SUN]
