Nigeria’s refineries continued to perform woefully, with two of the refineries, Warri and Kaduna refineries, recording a combined operating deficit of N2.952 billion in the month of February 2017, while Port Harcourt Refining recorded an operating surplus of N2.42 billion.
The NNPC in its Monthly Financial and Operations Report for February 2017 released in Abuja, said that Warri Refinery and Petrochemical Company, WRPC, and Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemical Company, KRPC, posted a deficit of N1.852 billion and N1.102 billion respectively.
The report noted that in the month of January, Warri Refinery posted operating surplus of N404.27 billion, while Kaduna Refinery recorded a deficit of N2.163 billion.
Port Harcourt Refinery, on the other hand, recorded a surplus of N5.115 billion in the month of January. The company in February recorded revenue of N47.187 billion, dropping by 6.76 per cent compared to N50.61 billion recorded in the previous month; while its crude and freight cost dipped to N42.06 billion from N42.97 billion recorded in January.
Its operating expenses rose by 6.7 per cent to N2.7 billion in February, compared to N2.52 billion in January 2017.
However, in the consolidated account of the refineries, report further pointed out that the three refineries recorded N70.97 billion in the month of February, representing a decline of 28.4 per cent from N99.11 billion recorded in the previous month, while their crude oil and freight cost dipped by 28.62 per cent from N88.24 billion in January to N62.99 billion in February.
The operating expenses of the three refineries, the report said, rose to N8.51 billion in February, from N7.52 billion recorded in the previous month, while they posted an operating deficit of N522..82 million, compared to a surplus of N3.356 billion in January.
Furthermore, the NNPC disclosed that the total crude oil processed by the three refineries for the month of February 2017 stood at 493,773 metric tonnes, an equivalent of 3.62 million barrels.
According to the NNPC, this translates to a combined yield efficiency of 90.37 per cent compared to 691,122 metric tonnes, about 5.067 million barrels of crude oil processed in January 2017. The January 2017 figure translates to a combined yield efficiency of 88.23 per cent.
Continuing, the NNPC said, “For the month of February 2017, the three Refineries produced 331,236 metric tonnes of finished petroleum products and 114,983 metric of Intermediate product out of 493,773 metric tonnes of crude processed at a combined capacity utilisation of 29.06 per cent; compared to 36.73 per cent combined capacity utilisation achieved in the month of January 2017.
“The operational performance is attributable to low crude oil available for production which dropped by 19.07% relative to last month total available crude oil for refining. The ongoing revamping of the Refineries will enhance capacity utilisation once completed. The three Refineries were active during the month.”
The NNPC explained that the petroleum products production, Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, and Dual Purpose Kerosene, DPK, by the domestic refineries in February 2017 amounted to 263.56 million litres compared to 327.67 million litres in January 2017.
