Nigeria - Port Harcourt - Rivers State.

Originally conceived as an export refinery, this plant has a capacity of 150,000 b/d and is relatively the best in the sector. It came on stream in 1989. Normally fuel oil produced at the plant is partly exported. Clean products are for local use.

When it operates, the refinery supplies most of northern and eastern Nigeria's products, in normal conditions providing a major part of the country's gasoline and jet fuel needs. In the early 1990s, it was the only supplier of products to the Nigerian market, with the other plants all affected by fires, strikes and riots.

The plant's cracker stopped operating in May 1997 after an accident, which caused a serious shortage of gasoline. In mid-1998 its units, apart from the crude oil distillation column, were shut down for repair.

Shell was asked to do the repairs. As Shell's bid price was judged too high, the plant's management contracted less qualified firms to do the work. As a result, most units have operated at less than their capacity.

Under a $251m contract awarded on March 15, 1994, the Nigerian unit of Singapore-based Ipco Int'l has built an offshore export terminal at the Bonny estuary and a 32-km pipeline to the refinery. Extra storage facilities were built at the refinery as well. They were completed in 1998, three years behind schedule due to payment problems (see background in Vol. 57, No. 6).

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