Nigeria fuel crunch to ease by January end
Monday, 18 January 2010
LAGOS, Jan 17 (Commodity Online): Refineries in Nigeria will start pumping up oil by January 31 when they are expected to return to optimum performance after Turn Around Maintenance. This was disclosed by the Group Executive Director, Refinery and Petrochemicals, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Austin Oniwon, during the stakeholders forum to find a lasting solution to the crises in the downstream sub-sector of the petroleum industry.
According to Oniwon, the refineries are currently in position to operate fully as their Turn Around Maintenance, TAM, had been carried out. Further reports emanating from the forum indicated that the Federal Government may use vessels to complement the pipelines which are currently in a state of disrepair as a result of constant vandalisation.
However, the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Dr. Rilwanu Lukman noted that the full deregulation of the downstream sector, though highly appreciated as a panacea to the myriads of problems bedeviling the sub-sector may not be implemented anytime soon as there are need to put a lot of measures in place to be able to act in a deregulated system once it kicks off. According to him, government would not want to give a date that could not be implemented and as such would rather concentrate on putting those measures in place.
"I would like to take a look at the issue of refineries. It is public knowledge that successive governments had granted refining licenses to many companies, with the hope of increasing our domestic production of refined products. But to this day no single refinery has taken off. Our analysis has led us to the conclusion that the enabling environment for the establishment of refineries does not exists in the country today. We have identified what constitutes the enabling environment and these have been incorporated in the petroleum industry bill.
Oniwon further stated that "the directorate was already putting finishing touch to the idea of using vessels and sea crafts to convey crude oil from production rigs and platforms nearest to the refineries. Oniwon said the idea was to reduce the dependence on pipelines in the movement of crude to refineries due to incessant attacks. "For so long the vital Chanomi Creek pipeline conveying crude from Escravos to Warri and Kaduna.
Refineries has been the butt of militant attacks aimed at crippling the fuel supply situation in the country," he said. Oniwon was upbeat that the plan which was on the verge of leaving the drawing board would go a long way in solving the problem of providing stock feed to the refineries.
According to Oniwon, the refineries are currently in position to operate fully as their Turn Around Maintenance, TAM, had been carried out. Further reports emanating from the forum indicated that the Federal Government may use vessels to complement the pipelines which are currently in a state of disrepair as a result of constant vandalisation.
However, the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Dr. Rilwanu Lukman noted that the full deregulation of the downstream sector, though highly appreciated as a panacea to the myriads of problems bedeviling the sub-sector may not be implemented anytime soon as there are need to put a lot of measures in place to be able to act in a deregulated system once it kicks off. According to him, government would not want to give a date that could not be implemented and as such would rather concentrate on putting those measures in place.
"I would like to take a look at the issue of refineries. It is public knowledge that successive governments had granted refining licenses to many companies, with the hope of increasing our domestic production of refined products. But to this day no single refinery has taken off. Our analysis has led us to the conclusion that the enabling environment for the establishment of refineries does not exists in the country today. We have identified what constitutes the enabling environment and these have been incorporated in the petroleum industry bill.
Oniwon further stated that "the directorate was already putting finishing touch to the idea of using vessels and sea crafts to convey crude oil from production rigs and platforms nearest to the refineries. Oniwon said the idea was to reduce the dependence on pipelines in the movement of crude to refineries due to incessant attacks. "For so long the vital Chanomi Creek pipeline conveying crude from Escravos to Warri and Kaduna.
Refineries has been the butt of militant attacks aimed at crippling the fuel supply situation in the country," he said. Oniwon was upbeat that the plan which was on the verge of leaving the drawing board would go a long way in solving the problem of providing stock feed to the refineries.