Page 10 - DMEA Week 01 2021

DMEA REFINING DMEA

NNPC deals with

fire at Port Harcourt

AFRICA THE Nigeria National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC) $50mn, six-month ‘integrity check’ in 2019, with
said this week that it had extinguished a fire that fellow Italian firm Eni contracted as technical
had broken out at its Port Harcourt Refining adviser. This work included equipment inspec-
Complex (PRHC) on January 1 without any tion at the site, as well as “relevant engineering
extensive damage to the facility. and planning activities”.
Speaking to press, NNPC general manager Meanwhile, work is also ongoing to rehabili-
for public affairs, Garba Muhammad, said that tate NNPC’s facilities at Warri and Kaduna that
the fire had been caused by a spark while a have capacities of 125,000 bpd and 110,000 bpd
33,000-litre truck was discharging naphtha into respectively.
one of the refinery’s tanks. Contracts were awarded to Italy’s Saipem and
“The fire affected only the discharging truck subsidiary Saipem Contracting worth a total of
and the pump bay,” Muhammad said. He added $1.485bn – $898mn for Warri and $587mn for
that safety protocols had been implemented, Kaduna – in August that entail a three-phase
noting that “no other property was damaged.” approach to rehabilitate the refineries over 77
Italy’s Maire Tecnimont is currently carrying months.
out engineering, procurement and construction NNPC budgeted NGN100bn ($245mn) for
(EPC) work to rehabilitate the refinery under full-year 2021 and utilised the full allocation.
a $1.5bn contract awarded in April 2021. This Given NNPC’s patchy history of operating these
will see the facility, which has been offline since state facilities, state investment in rehabilitating
2019, return to 90% of its 210,000 barrel per day the refineries has been a thorny issue and Minis-
capacity by 2023. It is comprised of a 60,000 bpd ter of State, Petroleum Resources Timipre Sylva
unit built in 1965, known as Area 5, and a newer sought to quell the discontent about ongoing
unit built in 1989 which is capable of processing spending, saying that NNPC had to continue
150,000 bpd of crude. paying salaries despite not producing any fuel
The Italian company had carried out a from the facilities.™

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