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Warri Refinery operates at 60% capacity
Sola Adebayo, Warri
The Warri Refinery and Petrochemical Company, which resumed operation last Thursday, after its Turn Around Maintenance, is currently operating at 60 per cent of its installed capacity of 125,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
Investigations by our correspondent on Tuesday revealed that the plant had been refining 70,000 barrels of crude oil per day since it came on stream last week.
Already, the management said it has resumed allocation of refined products to the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company, a development which may improve the supply and availability of products locally.
However, our correspondent could not confirm the claim from PPMC before press time on Tuesday afternoon.
A source at the Warri depot who craved anonymity said it is difficult to ascertain the claim since the PPMC had relied on imported refined products for distribution to the public.
The outgoing Manager, Public Affairs of WRPC, Mr. Ogbolu Onwuka who confirmed the prevailing production capacity of the plant in a chat with our correspondent, said it is not possible to operate in full blast shortly after the TAM.
�We have just started, the plant needs to stabilise before it can go full blast to hit 100 per cent of installed capacity, this is to refine 125,000 barrels of crude oil per day.�
However, Onwuka said the plant was operating unhindered, adding that refined products in the stock of the pioneer refining company had been allocated to the various loading depots of PPMC for supply to the public.
�We now pump directly to them (PPMC). We give them products every minute�, he said.
Onwuka said the refined products had satisfied all laboratory tests aimed at verifying their flashpoints and specification.
The plant was shut down in November 2003, for the TAM, handled by a French firm, Delatre Benzons Nigeria Limited, at an initial cost of $100 million.
The contract fee, our correspondent gathered, was reviewed severally, in the course of the exercise.
Although the TAM was completed in January, the plant could not immediately resume operations due to the non availability of crude oil.
The pipeline which conveys crude to the plant was ruptured by some unknown persons in March in 2003, at Escravos area of Delta state.
The PUNCH, Wednesday, June 30, 2004
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