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NNPC To Build Condensate Refinery For Petrol Production

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The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation is in the process of establishing a condensate refinery that is to specifically produce Premium Motor Spirit, also known as petrol.
It was learnt that the corporation had completed the feasibility studies on the refinery and the facility would utilise the huge amount of condensate in Nigeria for the production of petrol.
NNPC’s Group Managing Director, Maikanti Baru, had hinted in January this year that the corporation was working towards establishing some Greenfield refineries including a condensate refinery. He, however, did not provide details on what to expect from a condensate refinery.
But the corporation’s Group General Manager, Greenfield Refineries Department, Sanusi Usman, in a report put together by the NNPC and obtained by our correspondent in Abuja last Friday, revealed that the condensate refinery would particularly focus on the production of PMS, in contrast to what obtained in other conventional refineries.
He said: “Conventional refineries are set up to process crude oil into multiple products such as PMS (petrol), HHK (kerosene), AGO (diesel), fuel oil and others. Because you are dealing with high volumes here, you need to build different units to process and upgrade the quality of the various products.
“But in the case of a condensate refinery, the feedstock is condensate, not crude oil. And it is just one product you will get from it, which is PMS. This means that it does not need to have many units like a conventional refinery. If it is not very large, you can have the units in modular forms.”
According to Usman, Nigeria has a lot of condensates like gas in liquid form, adding that in most cases, it comes out with crude oil, “but there are some cases where we have the condensate being produced alone.
He added: “What we do in Nigeria is to blend some of our crude oil with condensate and sell. But condensate is not calculated as part of a country’s production in OPEC (Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries) quota. By including condensate as part of our production, Nigeria is actually losing some volumes of crude oil.”
He stated that this was the reason why the NNPC decided to establish a condensate refinery and remove that component from Nigeria’s crude oil by adding value to it locally.
Usman further explained that the other reason why the oil firm decided to build a condensate refinery was that in Nigeria the problem had always been the scarcity of PMS.
“By composition, condensate is almost like PMS; all you need to turn condensate into PMS is to do some conversion and quality improvement to upgrade it. The kind of equipment needed to do this is not going to be as expensive as the conventional refinery. That is why we settled for condensate refineries,” he stated.
On how far the corporation had gone, Usman stated that his department was already working with the Corporate Planning and Strategy Division of the NNPC to deliver the condensate refinery.
“Right now, we are working in collaboration with the Corporate Planning and Strategy Division on the condensate refineries. We have completed the feasibility studies on them and we believe that they are projects worth pursuing. We believe that with the support of the NNPC management, we can deliver on them,” he said.

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Geregu Power’s Half-Year Profit Up 148% On Back Of Increased Enegry Sales

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Geregu Power turned in 148.5 per cent more in net profit for the first half of the year compared to the same period of last year.
The company’s position was impacted by increased income from energy sales and, to some extent, capacity charge – the company’s major revenue sources.
The feat could mean the synergy struck by the firm with Siemens earlier in the year towards capacity expansion is beginning to pay off The electricity provider, backed by Femi Otedola, who chairs the board of Nigeria’s oldest lender FBN Holdings, announced an agreement with the German multinational technology conglomerate in May to more than double its current nameplate capacity to 1,200 megawatts
That entails scaling up Gereru I, one of its top power plants, to 500mw from 435mw and building a 500mw-new power plant using lower emissions turbines.
“The establishment of a combined cycle operations to generate an additional 200mw,” is also being planned, Geregu Power said in a May statement.
Revenue for the period under review climbed to N80.7 billion, up by 32.5 per cent, according to its unaudited earnings report issued Friday.
One notable downside of the generally strong performance was impairment loss on financial assets, which accelerated more than threefold to N6 billion after long-due receivables from trade debtors surged by 220.3 per cent.
Profit before income tax rose to N30.2 billion from N12.3 billion a year earlier.
The stock has returned 150 per cent since the start of the year, outperforming the Nigerian Exchange’s main stock index, which has yielded 33 per cent.
It has also outpaced NGX 30, the index that tracks the thirty most capitalised and most liquid equities on the bourse, which has improved by more than 27 per cent.
The share price of Geregu Power has not moved since 4 March, stuck at N1000 per unit.

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NUPENG, PENGASSAN Demand Dangote Refinery Sabotage Probe

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The joint unions of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and Petroleum and Natural Gas and Senior Staff Association (PENGASSAN) have demanded an investigation into the alleged sabotage by International Oil Companies (IOCs) to undermine and destabilise the operations of Dangote Refinery and Petrochemicals.
The two associations made the call in Lagos via a letter to President Bola Tinubu jointly signed by the General-Secretary, NUPENG, Comrade Afolabi Olawale, and his PENGASSAN counterpart, Comrade Lumumba Okungbowa, and made available to journalists.
Consequently, the unions charged the Federal Government to take decisive action to safeguard Dangote Refinery and ensure its successful operation for the benefit of the country.
The unions noted that “protecting our National assets is our collective responsibility”, insisting among others that the findings of such investigation be made public to ensure transparency and maintain public trust.
Describing Dangote refinery as not only a critical National Asset, but also a beacon of hope for energy security, economic growth, and employment opportunities, the unions said the matter must not be allowed to end without thorough investigation.
The letter, written through the office of the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, reads, “The leadership and members of our great Union and Association profoundly appreciate your commitment and dedication to restoring the economic growth and prosperity of our dear Nation, and we are also fully mobilised and committed to supporting all your laudable thoughts and hard decisions towards these lofty goals.
“Unfortunately, we are deeply concerned and shocked by the recent unusual allegations by the Dangote Refinery and Petrochemicals Company of a deliberate plot by some International Oil Companies (IOCs) to frustrate their business efforts and continued existence.
“These sabotaging actions reportedly include denying the Refinery crude oil supply and artificially inflating market prices of the crude oil to the Company, thereby forcing Dangote Refinery and Petrochemicals Company to source crude oil from other countries, even as far as the United States of America with attendant high operating costs and logistics.

By: Lady Godknows Ogbulu

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FG, Oil Producers Agree On Crude Supply To Local Refineries

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The Federal Govern
ment and Crude Oil Producers in Nigeria have agreed to work toward a sustainable supply of crude oil to local refineries under a market-determined pricing system.
The aim is to ensure that while the operators do business optimally, the refineries are not starved of feedstock.
The agreement, reached at a Virtual Meeting held with the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), and all the international oil companies (IOCs), was on the status review of the Framework for Seamless Operationalisation of Domestic Crude Oil Supply Obligation Template.
The producers, under the umbrella of the Oil Producers Trade Section (OPTS), agreed to concede to a framework that would be mutually beneficial, ensuring that local refineries are not strangulated due to off-the-curve prices.
Speaking with newsmen, Komolafe explained that contrary to a report that the decision was to placate certain interests, it was indeed targeted at ensuring energy security for the country.
“It is the job of the regulator to interface between the producers and the refiners; it is a delicate balance because we do not want one to overrun the other because that will lead to problem.
“If we don’t have product, then there will be energy gap in supplying the industry and this will not be a palatable situation for all, and if we have robust supply, but they shut down the upstream and we can’t get crude production, then there is also a problem. So, we, as regulator, are simply trying to maintain the delicate balance”, he said.

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