Nigeria has taken a nearer petroleum self-sufficiency with the commissioning of a new oil refinery. Unlike most other crude oil producers, Nigeria has experienced a severe and persistent shortage of petroleum products over the past five years - even though it discovered its own oil and established a local refining facility at Port Harcourt more than a decade ago.

SYNOPSIS: The latest refinery is situated at Warri in the centre of the oil-producing region of the Western Niger Delta. It is only the second to be built in Nigeria, and the first to be fully owned by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. Providing 450 jobs and designed to process two types on Nigerian crude oils, Warri has a potential daily production capacity of 100,000 barrels. It will produce gasoline, kerosene for aircraft and domestic use, gas-oil and industrial fuel oils. To exploit the area's inland waterways, the refinery's products can be loaded at a nearby jetty for local and export markets. Road tankers and pipelines link the refinery with other depots throughout Nigeria.

Nigeria's Head of State, Lieutenant-General Olusegun Obasanjo, performed the opening ceremony and declared it a national treasure.