Petroleum Africa
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Sunday, December 20, 2015
The head of Nigeria’s state-run oil and gas firm NNPC, Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu told reporters that the country’s refineries were inactive in October. The West African country, Africa’s number one crude producer, has had refining issues for years leading it to import the majority of its fuel needs.
Oil production is forecast to reach 2.1 million bpd this year and should rise to 2.4 million bpd next year, Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu told reporters, though none was being refined domestically. “In October we had zero performance (from refineries), we didn’t produce anything,” Kachikwu said. “As of now the refineries are still not working. We are going to try and repair them.”
According to various reports over the years, funds have often been allocated for maintenance or repairs for the refineries, although rarely, if ever, carried out.
In November a Reuters report said that Nigeria aimed to produce up to 30% of its domestic gasoline needs by Q1 2016 following an overhaul of the refineries. Given the state of the country’s refineries that timeline might be a little optimistic, and selling them off is not really an option in the condition they are in.
According to Kachikwu, Nigeria is looking to secure external funding to revamp the refineries before considering their sale. “We cannot sell the refineries in their present state. They will be worth nothing.”
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