FIRS Realises N1.97trn Revenue At Half-year

Hope of petroleum products’ supply

stability is about to be accomplished as

the major contractor handling key

rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt

refinery, Chrome Oil Services, has assured

that importation of premium motor spirit

(PMS), also known as petrol, would drop

by about 40 per cent as critical unit of

the refinery begins operation this week.

The company is among other contractors

carrying out overhaul work at the facility

as government takes giant steps to

revamp the country’s four refineries in a

bid to address the lingering fuel scarcity.

The executive chairman of the group,

Emeka Offor, said that a critical

constituent of the refinery, the Fluid

Catalytic Cracking Unit (FCCU), where

vacuum gas oil (VGO) and heavy diesel oil

(HDO) are cracked to obtain more

valuable products, like FCC gasoline used

as PMS blend, and Light Cycle, as blend

component for low pour fuel oil (LPFO)

and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), would

resume full operations this week.

Offor confirmed to journalists that the

restoration work at the FCC has reached

98 per cent conclusion and will come on

stream before the end of the week. The

chairman assured that when it becomes

fully operational, the unit will concentrate

on the production of petrol which will also

go a long way in reducing the importation

of the product as well as resolve the

lengthened petrol scarcity.

He said that the lack of turn-around-

maintenance (TAM) of the existing

refineries in the country had contributed

to the unrelenting scarcity of fuel in

Nigeria.

“Over time, the refineries are working but

below installed capacity. The last TAM

was done in 2000 and this is exercise that

should be carried out every two years,”

Offor said, adding that the inability of the

refineries to refine at capacity further

complicated fuel supply situation across

major cities in the country.

He attributed the problem to vandalisation

of pipeline infrastructure which transports

crude oil to the refineries and the lack of

TAM to sustain product refining capacity

of the refineries.