AUDITED financial statements have shown that the Warri and Kaduna refineries earned a total of N463.63m from the sale of electricity in 2020, despite not producing a single barrel of crude oil during the period.
According to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, the two refineries have a combined installed electricity generation capacity of 179 megawatts.
Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mele Kyari, had said in September 2020 that all the government-owned refineries were shut down because the delivery of crude oil to them was completely challenged as the pipeline network had been completely compromised by vandals.
The plants, which are located in Port Harcourt, Kaduna and Warri, have a combined installed capacity of 445,000 barrels per day but have been in a state of disrepair for many years.
Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company had said in its notes to the financial statements that it generated an income of N433.36m from the sale of power last year, as against N462.56m in 2019.
According to the NNPC, the company has a design potential to generate 125MW of electrical power from three gas turbine generators and three steam turbo-generators.
The refinery, designed to refine allocated local crude of 125,000 barrels per day to petroleum products, has however not processed crude since May 2019.
Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company said it earned N30.27m from the sale of electricity in 2020, compared to zero income in the previous year.
Information on NNPC’s website revealed that there are four 14MW/hr steam turbines at the KRPC, with a total capacity of 56MW/hr.
Kaduna refinery has a capacity to refine 110,000 barrels of crude oil daily but has also not processed crude since June 2019.
Port Harcourt Refining Company, which has been idle since March 2019, said in its financial statements that it would vigorously pursue the expansion and turnaround of its plants for productive use.
It said, “The efforts put in place by the management with support of corporate headquarters encouraged the Federal Executive Council to approve the sum of $1.5bn (approximately N575bn) in March 2021 for the rehabilitation of the refining plants which is to be completed in three phases starting from 18 months.”
PHRC added that it carried out a comprehensive physical stocktaking last year and the sum of N1.4b was established as the cost of various spare parts and materials that were either damaged or obsolete.
