docadams:
85% OF CRUDE MEAN FOR LOCAL REFINERIES EXPORTED IN 2014

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has
exported a total of 133.7 million barrels of crude oil (equivalent to 85.4 percent) meant for the three local refineries in 2014, data from the corporation has shown.

Only 22.8 million barrels or 14.6 percent of the total crude
for the domestic refining was utilised by the refineries in
Kaduna, Port Harcourt and Warri within the period.
The data obtained by Daily Trust showed that NNPC through its subsidiary, Pipeline and Product Marketing Company (PPMC), exported the crude under the crude exchange lifting (otherwise known as SWAP) arrangement totaling about 56.4 million barrels and offshore processing with about 21.1 million. The remaining 56.2 million barrels were regarded as unprocessed PPMC crude for the period.
Source in the oil industry told Daily Trust that some interest
groups decided to ignore local refineries by channeling the
crude oil under the crude for refined product SWAP
arrangement. The arrangement which in recent times generated a lot of controversy due to the scandalous nature under which it was run, had denied the refineries the little crude they needed to operate even below capacity.
“The combined average refining capacity utilisation for year
2014 was 14.4% as against 22% in 2013,” the NNPC report
said.

The statistics showed that the local refineries received a
total of 25,839,373.09 barrels (3,491,903mt) of (dry) crude
oil, condensate and slops and processed 23,360,372.27
barrels (3,156,914mt) into various petroleum products. The
total production output by the refineries was 2,665,289.09
metric tons of various petroleum products.

However industry source said the refineries were not
completely dead as perceived by many. For instance, the
major problem of the Port Harcourt refinery was power
supply for some time but that the problem was fixed long
ago.

The plan of the last regime, some observed, was to privatised the refineries possibly to its cronies as soon as it gets re-elected. Some of the equipment for the turnaround
maintenance of the Port Harcourt and Kaduna refineries
were abandoned at Onne Port for months. It was just
recently, after the general elections, that the NNPC officials
decided to pick them up. The idea was to keep the
equipment after the privatisation and then use them to
revive the refineries and begin production.

The source said with return of the refineries the amount
spent on the subsidies and the foreign exchange spending
will drop significantly.

Last Friday, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria
(CBN), Godwin Emefiele, after the Monetary Policy
Committee meeting in Abuja, announced that the Port
Harcourt and Warri refineries have already commenced
operations.

“Let me confirm that the CBN and the NNPC have held a
couple of meetings and I am aware that Port-Harcourt and
Warri have started refining petroleum products. We are
expecting that in the month of August. Kaduna Refinery will
begin refining petroleum products.
“Hopefully, as they ramp up production, they would be able
to get to about 19 to 20 million litres that they can produce
to meet our daily consumption level of about 30 million
litres.

“Our interest as CBN is that by this act alone we are going
to record a drastic reduction in the importation of petroleum products which will ultimately help our reserve position and help us in our mandate of strengthening the exchange rate,” he said.

But the General Manager, Public Affairs of the NNPC, Ohi
Alegbe, recently attributed the slow operations of the
refineries to the turnaround maintenance of the facilities
going on.

“The refineries at Warri, Port Harcourt and Kaduna will
resume next month (July) after a successful turnaround
maintenance (overhaul) of their facilities,” Alegbe said last
month.
www​.dailytrust.com.ng/.../60836-85-of-

How Crude Oil Swaps, OPAS Stalled NNPC Refinery
Operations by TheOtherview : 9:56am On Jun 2

The Crude for Petroleum Products Exchange Agreements,
better known as crude oil swaps, and Offshore Processing
Agreements (OPAs), entered into by the Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and oil traders between
2011 and 2014, are to blame for the abysmally low output
from NNPC’s refineries and the high importation of
petroleum products into the country, THISDAY has learnt.
Extensive interviews with officials of NNPC and industry
operators revealed that contrary to the perception that
has been created for some time that the nation’s four
refineries were operating at suboptimal capacity, thus
necessitating the massive importation of petroleum
products, certain elements within the system, with
endorsement of the former Minister of Petroleum
Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, ensured that
the refineries were starved of crude oil.
Last Thursday, NNPC’s public affairs unit announced that
its four refineries would resume operations next month.
Spokesman of the corporation, Ohi Alegbe, said the
refineries – the 210,000 barrels per day (bpd) Port
Harcourt plant, 110,000 bpd Kaduna plant and the
125,000 bpd Warri plant – would commence operations
after a successful overhaul of their facilities.
He said: “The turn-around-maintenance has been on
(going) for some time. We did not just want to make any
noise about it. The refineries will start production as soon
as they have delivery of crude oil for refining.
“Even when the refineries work at full capacity, they can
only produce around 19 million litres of petrol per day.”
With Nigeria consuming 40 million litres daily, to make up
for the remaining 21 million litres, Nigeria will still have to
rely on importation, he added.
Expectedly, NNPC’s announcement aroused interest and
questions were asked as to how come the plants, which
had not functioned almost two decades, were suddenly
ready to be brought back to life under the administration
of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Investigations showed that efforts to repair the refineries
started when the management of the plants, under the
supervision of the former Group Managing Director
(GMD), Mr. Andrew Yakubu, and a former Group
Executive Director, Refineries and Petrochemicals (R&P),
Mr. Tony Ogbuigwe, worked surreptitiously to ensure that
the plants were functional. Ogbuigwe was before his
promotion to GED R&P, the Managing Director of Port
Harcourt refinery.
THISDAY learnt that after the nationwide protests over
the removal of fuel subsidy in 2012, Alison-Madueke had
promised to fix the plants using the original equipment
manufacturers (OEMs) instead of awarding the contracts
for their repair to journeymen contractors.
However, after protracted negotiations with the OEMs,
NNPC failed to go ahead with the rehabilitation due to the
exorbitant fees they had demanded for the repair of the
plants.
With no progress made with the OEMs, Alison-Madueke,
in November 2013 announced that the refineries would be
privatised under the supervision of the National Council
on Privatisation (NCP).
But the NNPC chapter of the Nigerian Union of Petroleum
and Natural Gas (NUPENG), whose members threatened
to go on strike if the refineries were privatised, resisted
her push for the sale of the plants.
Frustrated with the impasse, Yakubu, using his approval
limit as the NNPC boss, but without the knowledge of
Alison-Madueke, started making $2.5 million monthly to
the management of the three refineries and encouraged
them to revamp the plants with local and external
engineers.
Under this arrangement, the refineries were fixed about a
year ago and ready to churn out petroleum products,
which would have slashed the volume of imported fuel by
more than 50 per cent and significantly reduced pressure
on the country’s foreign reserves.
In addition, the construction of a power plant for the Port
Harcourt refinery was concluded at the beginning of the
year to enhance its ability to operate efficiently.
However, instead of ensuring that crude oil was made
available to the refineries for domestic consumption,
Alison-Madueke, in conjunction with the Pipelines and
Products Marketing Company (PPMC), increased the
crude oil swaps and OPAs from some 270,000 bpd to
445,000 bpd, thus starving the refineries of crude oil.
The swaps and OPAs were awarded to Aiteo, Ontario Oil &
Gas Limited, Sahara Energy, Taleveras Petroleum Trading
BV and Swiss firm, Trafigura, among other oil traders.
When contacted on the issue, an aide of the former
minister claimed that the reason crude oil was not made
available to the plants was because of frequent crude oil
theft and vandalism of the pipelines, resulting in losses of
up to 30 per cent.
“Also, when the crude oil got to the refineries, the Fluid
Catalytic Cracking (FCC) units were not working, so we
were getting mainly base oils such as naphtha, low pour
fuel oil (LPFO), kerosene and diesel.
“Meanwhile, petrol, which is PPMC’s major requirement
and accounts for more than 70 per cent of all petroleum
products consumed in the country, was not being
produced.
“The lack of production of petrol, which is one of the
lightest distillates from the refining process, also resulted
in another loss of 30 per cent.
“This in turn impacted on NNPC’s ability to remit funds to
the Federation Account since monies from the
procurement of crude oil meant for domestic refining by
NNPC is supposed to go to the federation for sharing by
the three tiers of government.
“It was based on this that the former minister called a
meeting and increased the allocation for the swaps and
OPAs such that little or no crude oil was made available to
the refineries,” the aide explained.
Yet, further investigations by THISDAY revealed that
even though there were frequent cases of crude oil theft
and vandalism, the crude oil swaps and OPAs could have
been largely avoided because there is a subsisting
contract to move crude oil from Chevron’s Escravos oil
terminal to the Warri and Port Harcourt refineries by
marine vessels.
Despite the subsisting contract, the operator was not
allowed to lift crude oil to the refineries since last year
but continues to be paid by NNPC.
An oil industry operator, conversant with the lifting
contract by marine vessels, explained that elements
within the petroleum sector that preferred the swaps and
OPAs ignored this arrangement because of the loopholes
that allowed traders to lift crude oil and under-deliver
petrol including the derivatives or base oils to PPMC.
He explained that the recent probe by the Department of
State Security (DSS) into the swaps and OPAs had scared
the traders into importing outstanding cargoes, resulting
in the increased arrival of fuel-laden vessels at Nigeria’s
seaports in recent weeks.
The operator, who preferred not to be named, confirmed
that before the marine vessel lifting contract was
awarded, NNPC was losing up to 40 per cent of its crude
oil to theft and vandalism of the pipelines.
In order to stop the theft, a contract, he said, was
awarded to an Israeli company to lift crude oil from
Escravos to the Warri refinery in February 2011 under a
Proof of Concept Agreement, but it was unable to meet
the terms of the contract.
“Subsequently, a Nigerian firm, Ocean Marine Tankers
(OMT) Limited founded by Captain Hosa Okunbor, Tunde
Ayeni and others, took over the job. At first, OMT started
moving crude oil from the Escravos terminal to the Warri
refinery.
“OMT invested heavily in a very large crude carrier (VLCC)
with the capacity to lift 2 million barrels, then transferred
the oil to smaller vessels that moved to the refinery and
offload their content at the plant.
“You would recall when OMT commissioned MT Abiola
and MT Igbinosa in 2013 in Warri to convey crude oil to
the refinery.
“In spite of this arrangement with OMT to circumvent oil
theft, this was stopped with the swaps and OPAs,” he
said.
Confirming the development, an official of OMT said his
company had not been allowed to convey crude oil with
its tankers since last year but continues to be paid by
NNPC.
“When we took over the contract from the Israeli firm,
with the ship-to-ship transfer mechanism, we reduced
losses to 0.19 per cent as opposed to the 0.5 per cent
allowable under the contract.
“In fact, the former GMD of NNPC (Yakubu) was so
satisfied with the arrangement that he classified it as
security contract and extended it to include the Port
Harcourt refinery.
“But since last year, we have stopped conveying crude oil
to Port Harcourt and Warri due to the swaps and OPAs,”
he said.
When asked how NNPC ensured that crude oil was not
diverted under the marine lifting contract, the OMT
official said a shipping letter was issued to his company,
permitting it to obtain a bill of lading to load from
Escravos.
“Like all crude oil lifting contracts, officials of Chevron,
Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), NNPC, the
Navy and other security agencies must verify that we
have loaded 2 million barrels to our VLCC.
“Owing to the shallow draft at the refineries, the VLCC
stays offshore and transfers to the smaller vessels which
then move to refineries to offload. Then checks are done
to verify that the quantity lifted from the terminal is the
same as the quantity of crude oil offloaded at the
refineries,” he said.
The OMT official added that at the end of the month, the
refineries also undertook a reconciliation process to
ascertain that the crude oil delivered was the same as
what was lifted at the terminals, “because the yield from
the crude oil that is delivered to the refinery is
accountable to PPMC”.
“But like I said, this has stopped since last year because
of the desire to sustain the swaps and OPAs,” he said.
The company official also alleged that oil theft and
vandalism by criminal elements that hot-tap the pipelines
have continued unimpeded while persons who want to
disrupt OMT’s marine vessel lifting contract recently
attacked their vessels.
Further enquiries from NNPC revealed that its officials are
presently confident that the FCC units at the refineries
have been fixed and have the capacity to produce petrol
and other products.
One official informed THISDAY that crude oil accounts
for almost 90 per cent of refining cost, and if the
refineries were allowed to function, this would
significantly reduce the federal government’s subsidy
bill, because at current crude oil prices of slightly over
$60 per barrel, the plants could operate at a profit.

In Nigeria, millions of gallons of oil are stolen
all the time. There are advertisements for
stolen oil on the Nigerian version of Craigslist,
and not just small containers. The
advertisements are for giant tankers full of oil.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/
money/2014/10/29/359624435/episode-578-how-to-
steal-a-million-barrels-of-oil

docadams:
85% OF CRUDE MEAN FOR LOCAL REFINERIES EXPORTED IN 2014

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has
exported a total of 133.7 million barrels of crude oil (equivalent to 85.4 percent) meant for the three local refineries in 2014, data from the corporation has shown.

Only 22.8 million barrels or 14.6 percent of the total crude
for the domestic refining was utilised by the refineries in
Kaduna, Port Harcourt and Warri within the period.
The data obtained by Daily Trust showed that NNPC through its subsidiary, Pipeline and Product Marketing Company (PPMC), exported the crude under the crude exchange lifting (otherwise known as SWAP) arrangement totaling about 56.4 million barrels and offshore processing with about 21.1 million. The remaining 56.2 million barrels were regarded as unprocessed PPMC crude for the period.
Source in the oil industry told Daily Trust that some interest
groups decided to ignore local refineries by channeling the
crude oil under the crude for refined product SWAP
arrangement. The arrangement which in recent times generated a lot of controversy due to the scandalous nature under which it was run, had denied the refineries the little crude they needed to operate even below capacity.
“The combined average refining capacity utilisation for year
2014 was 14.4% as against 22% in 2013,” the NNPC report
said.

The statistics showed that the local refineries received a
total of 25,839,373.09 barrels (3,491,903mt) of (dry) crude
oil, condensate and slops and processed 23,360,372.27
barrels (3,156,914mt) into various petroleum products. The
total production output by the refineries was 2,665,289.09
metric tons of various petroleum products.

However industry source said the refineries were not
completely dead as perceived by many. For instance, the
major problem of the Port Harcourt refinery was power
supply for some time but that the problem was fixed long
ago.

The plan of the last regime, some observed, was to privatised the refineries possibly to its cronies as soon as it gets re-elected. Some of the equipment for the turnaround
maintenance of the Port Harcourt and Kaduna refineries
were abandoned at Onne Port for months. It was just
recently, after the general elections, that the NNPC officials
decided to pick them up. The idea was to keep the
equipment after the privatisation and then use them to
revive the refineries and begin production.

The source said with return of the refineries the amount
spent on the subsidies and the foreign exchange spending
will drop significantly.

Last Friday, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria
(CBN), Godwin Emefiele, after the Monetary Policy
Committee meeting in Abuja, announced that the Port
Harcourt and Warri refineries have already commenced
operations.

“Let me confirm that the CBN and the NNPC have held a
couple of meetings and I am aware that Port-Harcourt and
Warri have started refining petroleum products. We are
expecting that in the month of August. Kaduna Refinery will
begin refining petroleum products.
“Hopefully, as they ramp up production, they would be able
to get to about 19 to 20 million litres that they can produce
to meet our daily consumption level of about 30 million
litres.

“Our interest as CBN is that by this act alone we are going
to record a drastic reduction in the importation of petroleum products which will ultimately help our reserve position and help us in our mandate of strengthening the exchange rate,” he said.

But the General Manager, Public Affairs of the NNPC, Ohi
Alegbe, recently attributed the slow operations of the
refineries to the turnaround maintenance of the facilities
going on.

“The refineries at Warri, Port Harcourt and Kaduna will
resume next month (July) after a successful turnaround
maintenance (overhaul) of their facilities,” Alegbe said last
month.
www​.dailytrust.com.ng/.../60836-85-of-

How Crude Oil Swaps, OPAS Stalled NNPC Refinery
Operations by TheOtherview : 9:56am On Jun 2

The Crude for Petroleum Products Exchange Agreements,
better known as crude oil swaps, and Offshore Processing
Agreements (OPAs), entered into by the Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and oil traders between
2011 and 2014, are to blame for the abysmally low output
from NNPC’s refineries and the high importation of
petroleum products into the country, THISDAY has learnt.
Extensive interviews with officials of NNPC and industry
operators revealed that contrary to the perception that
has been created for some time that the nation’s four
refineries were operating at suboptimal capacity, thus
necessitating the massive importation of petroleum
products, certain elements within the system, with
endorsement of the former Minister of Petroleum
Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, ensured that
the refineries were starved of crude oil.
Last Thursday, NNPC’s public affairs unit announced that
its four refineries would resume operations next month.
Spokesman of the corporation, Ohi Alegbe, said the
refineries – the 210,000 barrels per day (bpd) Port
Harcourt plant, 110,000 bpd Kaduna plant and the
125,000 bpd Warri plant – would commence operations
after a successful overhaul of their facilities.
He said: “The turn-around-maintenance has been on
(going) for some time. We did not just want to make any
noise about it. The refineries will start production as soon
as they have delivery of crude oil for refining.
“Even when the refineries work at full capacity, they can
only produce around 19 million litres of petrol per day.”
With Nigeria consuming 40 million litres daily, to make up
for the remaining 21 million litres, Nigeria will still have to
rely on importation, he added.
Expectedly, NNPC’s announcement aroused interest and
questions were asked as to how come the plants, which
had not functioned almost two decades, were suddenly
ready to be brought back to life under the administration
of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Investigations showed that efforts to repair the refineries
started when the management of the plants, under the
supervision of the former Group Managing Director
(GMD), Mr. Andrew Yakubu, and a former Group
Executive Director, Refineries and Petrochemicals (R&P),
Mr. Tony Ogbuigwe, worked surreptitiously to ensure that
the plants were functional. Ogbuigwe was before his
promotion to GED R&P, the Managing Director of Port
Harcourt refinery.
THISDAY learnt that after the nationwide protests over
the removal of fuel subsidy in 2012, Alison-Madueke had
promised to fix the plants using the original equipment
manufacturers (OEMs) instead of awarding the contracts
for their repair to journeymen contractors.
However, after protracted negotiations with the OEMs,
NNPC failed to go ahead with the rehabilitation due to the
exorbitant fees they had demanded for the repair of the
plants.
With no progress made with the OEMs, Alison-Madueke,
in November 2013 announced that the refineries would be
privatised under the supervision of the National Council
on Privatisation (NCP).
But the NNPC chapter of the Nigerian Union of Petroleum
and Natural Gas (NUPENG), whose members threatened
to go on strike if the refineries were privatised, resisted
her push for the sale of the plants.
Frustrated with the impasse, Yakubu, using his approval
limit as the NNPC boss, but without the knowledge of
Alison-Madueke, started making $2.5 million monthly to
the management of the three refineries and encouraged
them to revamp the plants with local and external
engineers.
Under this arrangement, the refineries were fixed about a
year ago and ready to churn out petroleum products,
which would have slashed the volume of imported fuel by
more than 50 per cent and significantly reduced pressure
on the country’s foreign reserves.
In addition, the construction of a power plant for the Port
Harcourt refinery was concluded at the beginning of the
year to enhance its ability to operate efficiently.
However, instead of ensuring that crude oil was made
available to the refineries for domestic consumption,
Alison-Madueke, in conjunction with the Pipelines and
Products Marketing Company (PPMC), increased the
crude oil swaps and OPAs from some 270,000 bpd to
445,000 bpd, thus starving the refineries of crude oil.
The swaps and OPAs were awarded to Aiteo, Ontario Oil &
Gas Limited, Sahara Energy, Taleveras Petroleum Trading
BV and Swiss firm, Trafigura, among other oil traders.
When contacted on the issue, an aide of the former
minister claimed that the reason crude oil was not made
available to the plants was because of frequent crude oil
theft and vandalism of the pipelines, resulting in losses of
up to 30 per cent.
“Also, when the crude oil got to the refineries, the Fluid
Catalytic Cracking (FCC) units were not working, so we
were getting mainly base oils such as naphtha, low pour
fuel oil (LPFO), kerosene and diesel.
“Meanwhile, petrol, which is PPMC’s major requirement
and accounts for more than 70 per cent of all petroleum
products consumed in the country, was not being
produced.
“The lack of production of petrol, which is one of the
lightest distillates from the refining process, also resulted
in another loss of 30 per cent.
“This in turn impacted on NNPC’s ability to remit funds to
the Federation Account since monies from the
procurement of crude oil meant for domestic refining by
NNPC is supposed to go to the federation for sharing by
the three tiers of government.
“It was based on this that the former minister called a
meeting and increased the allocation for the swaps and
OPAs such that little or no crude oil was made available to
the refineries,” the aide explained.
Yet, further investigations by THISDAY revealed that
even though there were frequent cases of crude oil theft
and vandalism, the crude oil swaps and OPAs could have
been largely avoided because there is a subsisting
contract to move crude oil from Chevron’s Escravos oil
terminal to the Warri and Port Harcourt refineries by
marine vessels.
Despite the subsisting contract, the operator was not
allowed to lift crude oil to the refineries since last year
but continues to be paid by NNPC.
An oil industry operator, conversant with the lifting
contract by marine vessels, explained that elements
within the petroleum sector that preferred the swaps and
OPAs ignored this arrangement because of the loopholes
that allowed traders to lift crude oil and under-deliver
petrol including the derivatives or base oils to PPMC.
He explained that the recent probe by the Department of
State Security (DSS) into the swaps and OPAs had scared
the traders into importing outstanding cargoes, resulting
in the increased arrival of fuel-laden vessels at Nigeria’s
seaports in recent weeks.
The operator, who preferred not to be named, confirmed
that before the marine vessel lifting contract was
awarded, NNPC was losing up to 40 per cent of its crude
oil to theft and vandalism of the pipelines.
In order to stop the theft, a contract, he said, was
awarded to an Israeli company to lift crude oil from
Escravos to the Warri refinery in February 2011 under a
Proof of Concept Agreement, but it was unable to meet
the terms of the contract.
“Subsequently, a Nigerian firm, Ocean Marine Tankers
(OMT) Limited founded by Captain Hosa Okunbor, Tunde
Ayeni and others, took over the job. At first, OMT started
moving crude oil from the Escravos terminal to the Warri
refinery.
“OMT invested heavily in a very large crude carrier (VLCC)
with the capacity to lift 2 million barrels, then transferred
the oil to smaller vessels that moved to the refinery and
offload their content at the plant.
“You would recall when OMT commissioned MT Abiola
and MT Igbinosa in 2013 in Warri to convey crude oil to
the refinery.
“In spite of this arrangement with OMT to circumvent oil
theft, this was stopped with the swaps and OPAs,” he
said.
Confirming the development, an official of OMT said his
company had not been allowed to convey crude oil with
its tankers since last year but continues to be paid by
NNPC.
“When we took over the contract from the Israeli firm,
with the ship-to-ship transfer mechanism, we reduced
losses to 0.19 per cent as opposed to the 0.5 per cent
allowable under the contract.
“In fact, the former GMD of NNPC (Yakubu) was so
satisfied with the arrangement that he classified it as
security contract and extended it to include the Port
Harcourt refinery.
“But since last year, we have stopped conveying crude oil
to Port Harcourt and Warri due to the swaps and OPAs,”
he said.
When asked how NNPC ensured that crude oil was not
diverted under the marine lifting contract, the OMT
official said a shipping letter was issued to his company,
permitting it to obtain a bill of lading to load from
Escravos.
“Like all crude oil lifting contracts, officials of Chevron,
Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), NNPC, the
Navy and other security agencies must verify that we
have loaded 2 million barrels to our VLCC.
“Owing to the shallow draft at the refineries, the VLCC
stays offshore and transfers to the smaller vessels which
then move to refineries to offload. Then checks are done
to verify that the quantity lifted from the terminal is the
same as the quantity of crude oil offloaded at the
refineries,” he said.
The OMT official added that at the end of the month, the
refineries also undertook a reconciliation process to
ascertain that the crude oil delivered was the same as
what was lifted at the terminals, “because the yield from
the crude oil that is delivered to the refinery is
accountable to PPMC”.
“But like I said, this has stopped since last year because
of the desire to sustain the swaps and OPAs,” he said.
The company official also alleged that oil theft and
vandalism by criminal elements that hot-tap the pipelines
have continued unimpeded while persons who want to
disrupt OMT’s marine vessel lifting contract recently
attacked their vessels.
Further enquiries from NNPC revealed that its officials are
presently confident that the FCC units at the refineries
have been fixed and have the capacity to produce petrol
and other products.
One official informed THISDAY that crude oil accounts
for almost 90 per cent of refining cost, and if the
refineries were allowed to function, this would
significantly reduce the federal government’s subsidy
bill, because at current crude oil prices of slightly over
$60 per barrel, the plants could operate at a profit.

In Nigeria, millions of gallons of oil are stolen
all the time. There are advertisements for
stolen oil on the Nigerian version of Craigslist,
and not just small containers. The
advertisements are for giant tankers full of oil.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/
money/2014/10/29/359624435/episode-578-how-to-
steal-a-million-barrels-of-oil