By Ovie Okpare
The Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company (WRPC) has finally begins partial refining activities after nine years of undergoing repairs and resuscitation, NIGER DELTA TODAY Online can authoritatively report.
NIGER DELTA TODAY Online learned that the refinery began operation last Saturday from the Area 1 plant after crude oil was pumped into the plant.
The Warri Refinery has three plants for the refining of petroleum products.
Sources within the refinery and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) confirmed the development to our correspondent late Sunday night.
According to our sources, the Area 1 Plant has only produced Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) popularly called diesel, Dual Purpose Kerosne (DPK) and Naphthalene.
The sources, however, disclosed that Naphthalene has not been transferred to fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) unit for the production of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) and Gas.
The FCC is a chemical process used in petroleum refineries to break down large hydrocarbon molecules into smaller molecules.
It was, however, gathered that the FCC unit has not put on for the production of PMS and Gas.
Our sources maintained that large amount of AGO, DPK and Naphthalene have been produced from the partial production while waiting to go into full production when all the plants and units have been put into use.
“Warri Refinery started production on Saturday, but it has not been announced officially. The production started from Area 1 plant. There are three plants in the refinery.
“The other two plants and the FCC unit for cracking naphthalene are not currently working. But we are hopeful that the FCC will begin production next week. We get fuel from Naphtha. The naphtha currently being produced is a lite one”, one of sources asserted.
Following the development, Group CEO of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Mele Kyari, has arrived the Warri Refinery with some top management team to monitor ongoing production.
The sources added that Kyari arrived Delta State on Sunday and immediately proceeded to the plants for on-spot assessment of the production.
It was further learnt that security around the refinery had been beefed up. Our correspondent who visited the area observed increased security in and out of the refinery.
Efforts to speak with the management of WRPC and NNPCL on the development proved abortive as of the time of filing this report.
