Contractors have finally begun mobilisation at the Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company (WRPC) in Delta State, marking the start of a long-delayed rehabilitation programme that the NNPC says will return the 125,000-barrel-per-day refinery to full operational capacity by the fourth quarter of 2027.
The Warri refinery, one of Nigeria four state-owned refineries, has been in a state of near-total inactivity for over a decade due to equipment deterioration, pipeline vandalism, and a combination of financial and management failures that saw successive rehabilitation contracts awarded and abandoned without result.
NNPC Group CEO Mele Kyari said the current rehabilitation effort was different from its predecessors because it was fully funded through a 900 million dollar facility from the Afreximbank and carried a contractual completion guarantee backed by performance bonds.
Delta State Government and host community leaders in Effurun, Uvwie, and Udu LGAs have welcomed the development but are waiting to see actual construction progress before celebrating, given the history of false starts at the facility.
If the rehabilitation succeeds, the Warri refinery will be capable of meeting a significant portion of the petroleum products needs of the Niger Delta region and reducing the cost of distribution to communities currently paying a significant premium over Lagos pump prices due to distance from the Dangote refinery.
