Emmanuel Thomas
Warri refinery allegedly shut down
August 21, 2014 – There are indications that the Warri Refinery has been shut down one week ago, contrary to announcement that it has successfully started production, nine months after rehabilitation.
We gathered that it was shut down because the refinery could not evacuate Diesel and LPFO sold to Vitol Group and other marketers.
No official announcements have been made but sources say that investigation has already been launched into the incident.
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation announced few days ago that the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries have been successfully re-streamed after a nine-month rehabilitation exercise conducted by in-house engineers and technicians.
We learnt that both plants commenced preliminary production of petroleum products after successful test-runs,
However, while Port Harcourt Refinery was ramping up its operation to about 60 per cent of its 210,000 barrels per day, Warri Refinery production was projected to hit 80 per cent of its installed 125,000bpd capacity.