Nigerian government-owned refineries lost N18.96bn in the first two months of 2020, according to the Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation.
NNPC, the managing corporation of the refineries, released the data recently showing loss of N9.60bn in
January and N9.36bn in February.
Nigeria, Africa’s top oil-producer, relies largely on importation for refined petroleum products, as its refineries
remained in a state of disrepair for many years despite reported Turn-Around Maintenance.
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 NNPC said in April that it had secured funding for the rehabilitation of the refineries.
The Group Managing Director, NNPC, Mele Kyari, said the corporation was pursuing “a different model” for the
refineries, including the type used by the Nigeria LNG Limited.
The NLNG is jointly owned by the Federal Government, represented by the NNPC (49 per cent), and three international oil companies, namely Shell (25.6 per cent), Total (15 per cent) and Eni (10.4 per cent).
Kyari said the corporation would no longer be involved in running the refineries after their rehabilitation.
He added that upon completion of the ongoing rehabilitation, the services of a company would be
procured to manage the plants on an operations and maintenance basis.
In the first term of President Muhammadu Buhari, the NNPC had planned to rehabilitate the refineries to attain a
minimum of 90 per cent capacity utilisation.
The plan was to use third party financiers and the original refinery builders to provide the requisite funding and
technical support.
However, after over one and a half years, negotiations with financiers were stalled in December 2018 due to
varying positions on key commercial terms.
Kyari, who took over the NNPC leadership in July 2019, had reiterated his plan to revamp the refineries and end
fuel importation by 2023.
