Nationwide Jubilation As Buhari Delivers Record Breaking Message On Petrol, Kerosene And Diesel...

President Muhammadu Buhari, who doubles as the Minister of Petroleum Resources, ‎has announced that the Kaduna, PortHarcourt, and Warri refineries‎, have begun the production and refining of Dual Purpose Kerosene, DPK, and Automotive Gas Oil, AGO, otherwise known as kerosene and diesel, respectively.

This is coming at a time, when marketers have refused to import kerosene and diesel, due to the high exchange rate between the naira and the dollar, which has made the business non-profitable.

Due to the scarcity and high demand for the product, Post-Nigeria had reported that the product (kerosene), now sells as high as N400/litre.

According to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, which announced that they have resumed production, the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas, NLNG, blamed the current scarcity and high cost of Liquefied Petroleum Gas, LPG, nationwide, on the inability of its LPG vessel to berth and discharge its contents, at the Apapa ports, since December 29, 2016, due to congestion of the port facility.

NNPC in a statement in Abuja,‎ disclosed that the refineries started producing both commodities, since Saturday, and were currently producing more than 6 million litres of kerosene, and 7 million litres of diesel, on a daily basis.

The resumption of refining of AGO and DPK, according to the Corporation, was expected to balance the disequilibrium in demand and supply of the products, being experienced in parts of the country.

Addressing Journalists on the production level of the Warri refinery, Managing Director, MD, Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company, WRPC, Solomon Ladenegan, said the plant had been doing well since the Crude Distillation Unit, CDU, was revived, up on Saturday, January 7, 2017.

He pointed out that the refinery resumed production on Saturday, at about 10:22 hours, with the plant’s CDU functioning; saying that the plant now refines 2 million litres of kerosene, and three million litres of diesel daily.

He said: “This morning (yesterday), we have pumped the products to PPMC, and they have started loading.

“They are going to load up to one million litres of DPK and AGO. The products are there in the tank, and we are doing everything to get them to the market,” ‎Ladenegan‎ said.

His counterpart, ‎the Managing Director of the Port Harcourt Refining Company, PHRC, Bafred Enjugu, said the Port Harcourt refinery was producing 3 million litres of AGO daily, in addition to millions of DPK, being churned out by the refinery daily.

Enjugu, noted that the company’s operators were thrilled, having rehabilitated the old Port Harcourt refinery, where the production of AGO was being carried out by themselves, without the deployment of foreign expertise.