Nigeria’s Warri refinery has not yet reopened after last week’s
temporary closure because crude oil is still being loaded into the
plant, a spokesman for its operator the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation (NNPC) said.
NNPC spokesman Ohi Alegbe said the refinery would only restart when it had enough crude to keep it going for at least 25 days.
“Once we have supplied sufficient crude … we can restart the production process,” Alegbe said.
He added that crude was being supplied to the refinery in batches
carried by marine vessels, because most of the pipelines supplying it
had been compromised by vandalism.
Oil sales account for around 70 percent of government revenue in
Africa’s top crude producer, which imports most of the fuel used by its
170 million inhabitants because of the age and inefficiency of its
refineries in Warri, Kaduna and Port Harcourt.
The state oil company said on Thursday
the decision to shut Warri was taken because there was insufficient
crude in the system, adding it expected to resume by Tuesday.
The 125,000 barrels per day (bpd) Warri refinery resumed operations
two months ago after maintenance that began in November 2014. It is
expected to run at 60,000 bpd.
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