The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has announced that the 125,000-barrel-per-day Warri Refining & Petrochemicals Company in Warri, Delta State, is fully operating, just a month after operations at the 60,000-barrel-per-day Port Harcourt Refinery began.
During a plant visit on Monday, Mele Kyari, the NNPCL Group CEO, made this revelation.
In a footage released by Channels TV on Monday, Kyari was seen speaking to a group of tour participants, among them Farouk Ahmed, the CEO of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority.
According to him, although the repairs on the facility are not yet 100 percent complete, operations have commenced.
He said, “We are taking you through our plant. This plant is running. Although it is not 100 percent complete, we are still in the process. Many people think these things are not real. They think real things are not possible in this country. We want you to see that this is real.”
The petrochemical factory, which has refineries in Ekpan, Uwvie, and Ubeji, Warri, generates 13,000 metric tons of polypropylene and 18,000 MTA of carbon black annually.
The WRPC was constructed to supply markets in southern and southwestern Nigeria and was put into service in 1978 under the management of NNPCL.
NNPCL spokesperson Olufemi Soneye stated that the facility’s mechanical completion was originally planned for the first quarter of 2024.
“Warri should be done by Q1 (first quarter) 2024,” Soneye stated.
