Refineries get crude oil through marine vessels

Nigerian refineries currently get crude oil supply through marine vessels as opposed to the use of pipelines, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has revealed.

According to the corporation, the refineries had to change tactics as a result of the incessant attacks on crude oil and gas pipelines by vandals.

The Group Managing Director, NNPC, Mr. Andrew Yakubu, who disclosed this at the Port Harcourt Refining Company in Rivers State, noted that the scheme had made three refineries as well as the corporation’s strategic business units to transit from cost centres to profit-making ventures.

Yakubu, in a statement issued by the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Mr. Ohi Alegbe, disclosed that the supply of crude oil to refineries using marine vessels was developed as a result of the constant attacks on the crude supply pipelines which over the years had created serious challenges for the refineries.

On the long-term solution to the problem of pipeline vandalism, the GMD explained that plans were underway to deploy the horizontal directional drilling technology in all the corporation’s pipelines.

This, he said, would reduce the incessant attacks on the pipelines that had become a huge drag on the operations of the corporation as well as a drain on the national economy.

Yakubu said for NNPC to live up to its full potential, it must adopt a radical change in its operational attitude, adding that the present management was willing to support any SBU with innovative ideas on how to operate more efficiently and grow profit.

The Managing Director, PHRC, Mr. Bafred Enjugu, lauded the approval for crude supply to the refinery through marine vessels, and stated that the initiative had improved the company’s profit margin considerably.

He explained that the PHRC had commenced a piecemeal intervention in the plant through the replacement of components procured for Turn Around Maintenance using in-house resources and local contractors.