23rd November, 2010
Nigeria’s 110,000 barrel per day (bpd) Kaduna refinery has shut down after the crude oil pipeline feeding the facility was damaged, two trade sources said on Monday, in the latest example of sabotage to oil infrastructure in the country.
“There was some vandalism on the crude line,” said a source with direct knowledge of the refinery’s operations.
He added that it has been shut for at least a week, but the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC declined to comment.
Nigeria has total refining capacity of 445,000 bpd but have never reached full production because of sabotage and operational failures.
The Kaduna refinery runs on crude oil imported by pipeline from Chevron’s Escravos oil terminal.
A second trade source said the other three refineries in Nigeria are running at around 60 per cent of capacity, leaving total estimated production at around 200,000 bpd.
Although Nigeria is a top African top oil producer, it imports some 85 per cent of its oil product needs, mainly from European suppliers.
A subsidiary of oil firm NNPC has issued an import tender for between 15-20 gasoline cargoes for December delivery.
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