Refineries production capacity to increase by 555,000 bpd

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has disclosed plans to increase the name plate capacity of its refineries to one million barrels of crude oil per day from its current 445,000 bpd.

Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mr. Maikanti Baru, stated this at Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Oloibiri Lecture Series and Energy Forum 2018 with theme: ‘‘The Nigerian Oil Industry in a world of Changing Energy Supply- Are we prepared?”   

‘‘Furthermore, we are looking at the total revamp and comprehensive rehabilitation of our refineries to ensure that we refine all our in-country requirements. We are in the process of reversing the trend of massive importation of finished products as this is unsustainable, therefore, upgrades of our refineries is the way to go,” he said.

Baru, who was represented by Chief Operating Officer, Upstream Directorate of NNPC, Mr.Bello Rabiu, said discussions with relevant investors and financiers are ongoing, adding that the expectation is that the refineries will be fully back on stream by December 2019.

On renewable energy investment, he said the potential to increase the energy capacity and availability will be achieved with its abundance, stating that, currently, it has a large hydropower potential of 11,250MW, 11million hectares of forest and woodland. Other potentials according to him are;  30 million tonnes per year of municipal waste, 3.57.0 kW h/m2/day of Solar radiation, wind speeds from a low 1.4 to 3.0m/s in the Southern areas, except for coastal line and 4.0 to 5.1m/s in the North.

He regretted that, with all these resources, the country still lags behind in the renewable energy development and usage possibly due to high costs of developing them when compared to fossil-based fuels.

On gas, Baru  said NNPC has identified Seven Critical Gas Development Projects (7CGDP) scheduled to deliver about 3.4billion standard cubic feet of gas per day on an accelerated basis to bridge a projected medium term supply gap by 2020.

He noted that the 7CGDP would be executed aggressively on a sustained level.

The 7CGDP include, development of the 4.3 trillion cubic feet (TCF) Assa North/Ohaji South field, development of the 6.4 TCF Unitized Gas fields (Samabri-Biseni, Akri-Oguta, Ubie-Oshi and Afuo-Ogbainbri) and the development of 7TCF NPDC’s OML 26, 30 and 42.

Others include; development of 2.2 TCF Shell Petroleum Development Company, (SPDC) JV Gas Supply to Brass Fertilizer Company, cluster development of 5 TCF OML 13 to support the expansion of Seven Energy Uquo Gas Plant and the cluster development of 10 TCF Okpokunou/Tuomo West (OML 35& 62)

He said that the anticipated rise in domestic gas demand to about 7bscfd which is envisaged to outpace gas supply development trajectory necessitated the urgency for NNPC to identify short, medium and long term gas resources to bridge the huge supply gap.