The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said it had engaged the original builders of the refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna, in a bid to return them to at least 90 per cent capacity utilisation before the end of 2019, The Punch reports.

Nigeria’s four refineries with an installed capacity of 445,000 barrels per day, have continued to operate far below the installed capacity for many years. The corporation, in its quarterly publication for the fourth quarter of 2017 said; “For a start, the corporation has gone back to the original refineries’ builders, which are the JGC Corporation of Japan for Port Harcourt Refinery, Italy-based Snamprogetti, for Warri Refinery and Japan-based Chyoda, for Kaduna Refinery.”

The Chief Operating Officer in charge of the refineries and petrochemicals autonomous business unit, NNPC, Mr. Anibor Kragha, was quoted as saying that the original builders had actually started conducting studies to determine the cost of fixing the plants and returning them to minimum capacity utilisation of 90 per cent.

He said once this was achieved, the corporation would move in swiftly to perfect the proposed funding option and execute the upgrade of the plants within a 24-month window ahead of the 2019 deadline of the Federal Government for zero fuel import. According to the corporation, already, about 30 would-be financiers have submitted expressions of interest after a widely publicised bid.

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