Nigeria’s state hydrocarbon company NNPC Ltd’s three refinery complexes, currently undergoing turn around maintenance (TAM), will not be producing diesel with sulphur content less than 1,500parts per million (1,500ppm) when they are commissioned.
This is way above the quantity of sulphur content in the regulation, even for local refiners.
The government run crude oil processing plants, located in Port Harcourt (in eastern Nigeria), Warri (in mid-western Nigeria) and Kaduna (in the country’s north), have been undergoing a revamp, starting with the Port Harcourt complex, since 2021. Commissioning hitches have reportedly held the smaller (60,000Barrels Per Stream Day) of the two refineries in the Port Harcourt complex from coming on stream. Revamp of the (150,000BPSD) bigger facility is not expected to be ready to work until 1st Quarter 2025.
NNPC sources argue that the rehabilitation was to bring the facilities back to work and not to introduce any technology process that wasn’t there in the first place. “The Turn Around Maintenance has been to simply restore the processing plants to optimum performance, and not to introduce processes that were not in the plants before the TAM”, NNPC sources tell Africa Oil+Gas Report. “What we have done is like for like”.
In line with Nigeria’s agreement with other member countries of the Economic Community for West African States (ECOWAS), which is in consonance with Nigeria’s Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), the roadmap by the Nigerian Midstream & Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) says that local refiners can produce diesel with 650 to 1,200ppm sulphur content until December 2024. But the rule also says that importers cannot bring in diesel with sulphur content of more than 650ppm.
The incentive for local refiners over importers is to compensate them for having invested in in-country production, and they should recoup their investment. NMDPRA will gradually move importers to 50ppm by June 2025. That is the policy, at least on paper.
SOURCE: africaoilgasreport.com
