05 August 2014, Lagos – The inability of the four refineries in Nigeria to produce at optimal capacity has continued to impact negatively on the economy of the country, costing the country $706.521 million, about N113.04 billion in February 2014, data obtained from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, has revealed.
Specifically, the four refineries processed 497,000 metric tonnes of crude oil in February, out of a total of 903,000 metric tonnes of crude available for processing.
A metric tonne of crude oil equals 7.312 barrels of crude, while the average price of crude in the international market is $107 per barrel.
The four refineries are the Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemical Company (KRPC), Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC) and Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company (WRPC).
According to the NNPC, in the month under review, 443,000 metric tonnes of dry crude oil, condensate and slop was received by the four refineries, KRPC, PHRC and WRPC, adding that with an opening stock of 460,000 metric tonnes, total crude oil available for processing was 903,000 metric tonnes, out of which 497,000 metric tonnes was processed.
To this end, the NNPC put the combined average capacity of the four refineries in the month under review at 35.55 per cent.
According to the NNPC, the respective average capacity utilisation during the month was 33.57 per cent, 12.75 per cent and 50.39 per cent for KRPC, PHRC and WRPC respectively.
– Vanguard