LAGOS Nigeria's four domestic refineries are
still either not producing at all or
performing well below capacity as the oilproducing
nation groans under another cycle
of fuel shortages.

Severe product shortages have been a
recurring feature, disrupting economic
activity in the main cities of Abuja,
Lagos, Kaduna and Port Harcourt, despite
renewed efforts to fix the refineries
in the past year.

"We are currently relying on the two
refineries in Port Harcourt for domestic
fuel supplies," the spokesman for the Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation, Ndu
Ughamadu, said. The two refineries in the
southern oil city of Port Harcourt,
with a combined output of 210000 barrels a day,
were operating at 85% capacity, he
said.

Business Day

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), October 24, 2000