The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has announced the resumption of operations at the 125,000-barrel-per-day Warri Refining and Petrochemicals Company (WRPC) in Delta State.
This development comes just a month after the 60,000-barrel-per-day Port Harcourt Refinery began operations.
The NNPCL Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari, disclosed this on Monday during a tour of the facility, which was attended by key officials, including the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, Farouk Ahmed.
In a video posted by Channels Television on Monday, Kyari, while addressing the tour team, said the inspection was intended to showcase the progress made at the facility.
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.”
Located in Ekpan, Uwvie, and Ubeji in Warri, the WRPC produces 13,000 metric tonnes per annum (MTA) of polypropylene and 18,000 MTA of carbon black.
The refinery, commissioned in 1978 and managed by the NNPC, serves markets in Nigeria’s southern and southwestern regions.
NNPC spokesperson Olufemi Soneye had initially stated that the mechanical completion of the facility was expected by the first quarter of 2024.
“Warri should be done by Q1 (first quarter) 2024,” Soneye noted.
The WRPC is one of Nigeria’s four state-owned refineries, along with the old and new Port Harcourt Refining Companies in Rivers State and the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company in Kaduna State.
