The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has slated a comprehensive rehabilitation of the nation’s three refineries located in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna to achieve optimal capacity utilization in 2017, The Guardian reported.

Speaking at the Annual General Meetings (AGMs) of the three refineries in Abuja, NNPC’s COO for Refineries, Anibor Kragha, said the corporation was determined to move away from the approach of quick fixes and undertake a comprehensive revamp of the plants, informed The Nation.

Kragha stated: “The plan for next year is to get the comprehensive rehabilitation program done.  What we are doing now is to step back and take a holistic approach and do a full rehabilitation of all the refineries.” He aded that once the exercise was achieved, the refineries in due course would draw up a chart for routine Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) program.

On the earlier plan to have other refineries co-located with the existing refineries, Kragha said though the plan was still on course, none of the projected co-location refineries would come on stream in 2017 based on existing timeline for plants’ construction. On the plan by Port Harcourt Refinery to commence the production of Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATK) for domestic consumption, the COO said the refinery was a few steps away from hitting the mark.