Nigeria awarded Italian company Comerint SPA a $7.6 million contract for turnaround maintenance for its 125,000 b/d refinery at Warri, said a spokesman for Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. The work is expected to be complete within 5 months. The contract is part of a drive by NNPC to repair all its refineries, which have been plagued for years by repeated and debilitating failures (OGJ Online, Apr. 30, 2000).
The plant has been out of service due to an explosion in its crude distillation unit heater that caused major damage to the main crude oil heater. Ten companies were shortlisted for the Warri contract before Comerint won the bidding process. The most recent maintenance work was in 1994.
Nigeria has three other refineries�60,000 b/d and 150,000 b/d plants at Port Harcourt in the southeast and a 110,000 b/d plant at Kaduna, in the north. Turnaround maintenance at Port Harcourt's 60,000 b/d refinery was completed in 1999, while the 150,000 b/d plant was shut for similar work on May 15. It is being rehabilitated by Nigerian firm Chrome.
The rehabilitation of the Kaduna plant, started more than 2 years ago with an expected cost of $240 million, is yet to be completed.
Nigeria plans to eventually privatize the four plants, which provide only 40% of domestic refined products supply.
