According to reports, all four refineries in Nigeria only worked at a combined capacity utilisation of 1.96 per cent in September, an official document has stated.
This is contrary to the claims, in the early days of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, by Nigerian oil officials that the refineries were close to working at maximum capacity.
The current working situation of the refineries was stated in the September report of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC.
The report stated that the combined value of output by the public refineries in Nigeria amounted to N9.9 billion for crude processed in September. It said that the associated crude plus freight cost stood at N6.3 billion, representing a loss of N8.8 billion after an overhead cost of N12.4 billion.
The report also indicated that 75.78 million litres was produced compared to 200.2 million litres in August in respect of products from domestic refineries.
The running of the refineries at a loss, coupled with their dwindling performance could further embolden the calls for the privatisation of the refineries despite the stance of the federal government that the refineries will not be sold.
The total crude processed by the three refineries in September was 261,371.14 bbls (35,648 MT) translating to a combined capacity utilisation of 1.96 per cent.
According to the report, only Port Harcourt refinery produced 31,008 million MT of petroleum products, out of 35,648 million MT of crude processed at an average capacity utilisation of 5.77 per cent.
The NNPC also said it recorded N38.67 billion from the sale of downstream petroleum products in September.
According to the report, the amount was in respect of revenue from “white products” sold by the Pipelines and Product Marketing Company.
The white products include Automotive Gas Oil, Household Kerosene, and Premium Motor Spirit (PMS).
The report also indicated that NNPC generated N44.2 billion from the sale of white petroleum products in August.
According to the report, the total revenue for white products sold from January to September 2015 stood at N461.1 billion.
