Nigeria hopes to restart two refineries in mid-December

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigerian oil refineries in Warri and Kaduna could resume operations in mid-December after workers complete repairs on a pipeline feeding crude supplies to the two facilities, the junior oil minister said.

The OPEC member hopes to finish repairs next month on the Chanomi Creek crude oil pipeline that connects to Warri's 125,000 barrel per day refinery and Kaduna's 110,000 bpd plant.

"The pipelines are still bad. Once the pipelines are repaired, we are told by the middle of December crude will then go to Warri and Kaduna," Odein Ajumogobia told reporters on Wednesday.

A lull in violence in the oil-producing Niger Delta has enabled workers to begin repairs on the pipeline, which has been attacked by militants in the past.

Two refineries in Port Harcourt are currently in operation with a capacity of around 210,000 bpd.

Nigeria's four state-owned refineries have a nameplate capacity of 445,000 bpd but have never operated at that level. Even if Nigeria's refineries are able to operate at full capacity, they would produce only a fraction of the needs of Africa's most populous country of 140 million people.

Refinery outages caused mainly by mismanagement and sabotage have forced the OPEC member to depend on massive fuel imports for its domestic needs.

"Once the refineries are working we will reduce our importation by about 40 percent," Ajumogobia said.

Despite vying with Angola as Africa's top oil producer, Nigeria imports 18 million litres of petrol a day or some 85 percent of its fuel needs because of the chaotic condition of its refineries.

Government fuel subsidies, which President Umaru Yar'Adua has promised to abolish, costs Abuja 45 billion naira each month, Ajumogobia said.