List of Oil Refineries in Nigeria

Refineries in Nigeria over time are said to be non-functional and it has been the primary reason why Nigeria’s crude oils are exported to other countries, largely the United States of America to be refined and sold at an exorbitant price in Nigeria. While Nigerians have protested against the exorbitant amount petroleum products are sold for, particularly Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), the government have gone unbothered and continue to turn blind eyes away from making Nigeria’s refineries all functional.

The refineries in Nigeria are subsidiaries of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and there are a total of 4 refineries in Nigeria, as listed on the NNPC website. Two refineries are situated in Port Harcourt, one in Warri, both oil-producing areas and the last in Kaduna, a non-oil producing state in Northern Nigeria.

Note that oil refineries are not the same as oil fields. While oil refineries are meant for refining or process hydrocarbon into petroleum products, oil fields are surface land areas where wells that produced or are producing oil from multiple formations and reservoirs are grouped together.

In this post, we highlight the list of oil refineries in Nigeria, their locations, and everything you need to know about them.

Oil Refineries in Nigeria

1. ​Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC)​​​​

The Port Harcourt Refining Company Limited is in business to optimally process hydrocarbon into petroleum products for the benefit of all stakeholders. The company’s vision is to be an innovative international hydrocarbon processing company of choice.

PHRC Limited is made up of two refineries. The old refinery was commissioned in 1965 with a current nameplate capacity of 60,000 barrels per stream day (bpsd) and the new refinery was commissioned in 1989 with an installed capacity of 150,000 bpsd This brings the combined crude processing capacity of the Port Harcourt Refinery to 210,000 bpsd. It has five (5) process areas – Areas 1-5. The new refinery is made up of Areas 1-4 while the old refinery is Area 5.

Area 1 is made up of the Crude Distillation Unit (CDU), where kerosene and Automotive Gas oil (AGO) are produced as finished products. Other intermediate products from CDU are Straight –Run Naphta (SRN). Straight Run Gasoline (SRG) used for PMS blend, Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and Atmospheric residue (AR). Vacuum Distillation Unit (VDU) where AR (CDU bottoms) are further processed under vacuum, or significantly less than atmospheric pressure to produce high –vallue products without cracking like vacuum gas oil (VGO) fccu feedstock and light as gas oil.

Area 2 is made up of Naphtha Hydrotreatung unit (NHU), where naphtha is hydro-desulphurised; the Catalytic Reforming Unit (CRU), responsible for upgrading naphtha to reformate which has a higher octane value for PMS blend; the kero Hydrotreating Unit (KHU) where kero is treated to make it acceptable for aviation use: Area 2 also has the Continuous Catalyst Regeneration Unit (CCR), which constantly reactivates the deactivated catalyst from the reformer. Other units in Area 2 include the Hydrogen Purification, Fuel Gas Vaporizer, Sour Water Treatment and Caustic Treatment units.

Area 3 is made up of a Fluid Catalytic Cracking Unit (FCCU), where Vacuum Gas Oil (VGO) and heavy diesel oil (HDO) are cracked to obtain more valuable products, like FCC gasoline used as PMS blend and Light Cycle as a blend component for LPFO and LPG. Other units in Area 3 include the Gas Concentration, Gas Treating and Mercaptan Oxidation units.

Area 4 has three process units namely Dimersol, Butamer Isomerisation and Alkylation units. The units are designed to produce high octane gasoline blend components.

Area 5, which is the old refinery, is made up of the Crude Distillation Unit (CDU); the Platform Unit (CRU), the LPG Unit, as well as utility section.

The refinery is self-sufficient in power and utilities generated from the Power Plant & Utilities. There are four (4) turbo-generators each with a capacity of 14MW of electricity per hour and four (4) Boilers, capable of generating 120 tons of steam per hour each. The section also generates cooling/service water, plant/instrument air and nitrogen.

The refinery has a pool of maintenance personnel that take care of routine, programmed and emergency repairs of equipment.

There is also the Supply Chain Management Department that oversees the procurement and storage of needed spare parts and chemicals.

Products

The Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC) produces the following products:

• Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG)
• Premium Motor Spirit (PMS)
• Kerosene (aviation and domestic)
• Automotive Gas Oil (AGO – diesel)
• Low Pour Fuel Oil (LPFO) and
• High Pour Fuel Oil (HPFO)

PHRC produces UNLEADED gasoline that meets international standards.

Contact Address:

Managing Director,
Port Harcourt Refining Company Limited’
Alesa Eleme, Port Harcourt.
P.O. Box 585
Tel: (084) 777848

Or

Manager, Public Affairs,
Port Harcourt Refining Company Ltd,
Alesa Eleme, P.O Box 585, Port Harcourt
Te: 084 – 766951​​

​2. Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company (WRPC)​​​

Warri Refinery, the first Nigerian government wholly-owned refinery was commissioned in 1978. It was built to process 100,000 barrels of crude oil per day but was later de-bottlenecked to process 125,000 barrels per day in 1987. It was essentially built to add value to some of the refinery by-products such as propylene rich stock and decant oil.

Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company (WRPC) was incorporated as a limited liability company on the 3rd of November 1988 after the merger of the then Warri Refinery and the Ekpan Petrochemical Plants.

The operability of these plants is contingent on the availability and reliability of the following facilities:

• Electric Power and Utilities: These are produced within WRPC and are critical to the steady processing of crude oil into petroleum and petrochemical products. They include among others steam, electricity, various types of water quality such as (firewater, process water, potable water, boiler feed water and cooling water), instrument and plant air and nitrogen.​
• The company has a design potential to generate 125MW of electrical power from 3 Gas Turbine Generators and 3 Steam Turbo-generators (STGs). Design capacities of the facilities are:​​
  • 2 ´ 15 MW extraction/condensing STG (STG-1 &2),
  • 1 ´ 15 MW condensing STG (STG 3),
  • 1 ´ 20 MW GTG located in the petrochemical facilities,
  • 2 ´ 30 MW GTGs with 55 tonnes/hr waste heat boilers.

Some of the utility generating facilities within WRPC include:

• Water treatment plants
• Two Nitrogen Plants,
• Compressed air systems and Refinery and
• ​Petrochemical Effluent Water Treatment Plants.​

Contact Address

Refinery Road,
Ekpan, Warri – Delta State, Nigeria.
E-mail: wrpc@nnpcgroup.com
Telephone: 053-250812​​​​​​​

3. ​​Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company (KRPC)​​​

The decision to construct the third Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) refinery in Kaduna was taken in 1974 along with that of the second NNPC refinery located at Warri. However, it was decided that work would commence on the construction of the third refinery whenever the projection of the consumption of petroleum products justifies it.

By early 1975, in view of the fuel shortages experienced then, the Federal Government decided that work on the third refinery should be advanced. It was envisaged that the refinery was to be a simple hydro skimming type refinery in order to meet up with the fuel demand then.

Based on the feasibility studies carried out, which took into consideration the consumption of the various petroleum products within the Northern Zone, and adequate means of disposal for the surplus products, a Refinery with a crude oil capacity of 42,000 barrels per stream day (BPSD) could be easily justified. Hence, the refinery was designed for a capacity of 60,000 BPSD. It was much later that the Federal Government decided that the capacity for any refinery in Nigeria should not be below 100,000 BPSD. However, this would have led to the production of large quantity of heavy ends. And one practical and viable solution is reprocessing the heavy fuel oils.

In order to do this, the whole project plans had to be modified so that what initially was planned to be simply a hydro skimming type refinery, developed into an integrated refinery. The refinery would now be able to produce a wider variety of petroleum products, some of which should be lubricating base oils. Hence, it became necessary to import suitable paraffinic based crude oil from Venezuela, Kuwait or Saudi Arabia.

Products

Products from the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company (KRPC)​​​ include:

• Premium Motor Spirit (Pms)
• Kerosine (Aviation And Domestic)
• Liquefied Petroleum Gas (Lpg)
• Automotive Gas Oil (Ago-Diesel)
• Low Pour Fuel Oil (Lpfo)
• High Pour Fuel Oil (Hpfo)
• Lube Base Oils
• Hydro-Finished Wax
• Asphalt
• Linear Alkyl Benzene
• Benzene
• Heavy Alkylate
• Kero Solvent
• Normal Paraffins
• Toluene
• Aromatic Solvent
• Heavy Paraffins
• Sulphur Flakes

Contact Address

Kaduna Refining & Petrochemical Company Limited
KM 16 Kachia Road
P.M.B 2252 ​
Kaduna.