The scarcity of kerosene being witnessed across Nigeria may soon end as the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s three refineries have resumed production of kerosene and diesel, an official has said.
Ndu Ughamadu, NNPC’s Group General Manager, Public Affairs Division, said in a statement, Wednesday, that the refineries in Kaduna, Port Harcourt and Warri have resumed production of Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) and Dual Purpose Kerosene (DPK), otherwise known as diesel and kerosene respectively.
The resumption of refining of AGO and DPK, according to Mr. Ughamadu, is expected to balance the disequilibrium in demand and supply of the white products being experienced in recent times in parts of the country.
On the production level of the Warri refinery, the statements quoted the Managing Director of the Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company, WRPC, Solomon Ladenegan, as saying that the plant had been doing well since the Crude Distillation Unit (CDU) was revved up on
Saturday.
Mr. Ladenegan said the refinery resumed production last Saturday at about 10:22 a.m., with the plant’s CDU functioning.
The refinery chief stated that the plant now refines 2 million litres of kerosene and 3
million litres of diesel daily.
“This morning, we have pumped the products to PPMC and they have started loading. They are going to load up to 1 million litres of DPK and AGO. The products are there in the tank and we are doing everything to get them to the market,” he disclosed.
According to the statement, the Managing Director of the Port Harcourt Refining Company, PHRC, Bafred Enjugu, said Port Harcourt Refinery was producing 3 million litres of diesel daily, in addition to millions of litres of kerosene being churned out by the refinery daily.
Mr. Enjugu enthused that his operators were thrilled having rehabilitated the old Port Harcourt Refinery where production of AGO was being carried out by themselves without foreign expertise deployment.
“The Kaduna Refinery has also roared into action, producing millions of litres of white products to ease out the situation in supply and distribution of petroleum products nationwide,” the statement said.
PREMIUM TIMES reports that major cities in the country have been hit by scarcity of kerosene, used by millions of largely poor Nigerians for cooking.
The situation has caused increase in the price of the product, leading some residents to turn to alternatives such as firewood and cooking gas. Three of the most affected cities are Kaduna and Zaria in Kaduna State and Calabar in Cross River State.
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