Minister of state for petroleum, oil sector, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri and group chief executive officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Mele Kyari, have carried out an inspection tour of the Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemical Company (KRPC) to access progress on the ongoing quick-fix project being undertaken by Daewoo Engineering Construction Nigeria Limited.
Before the inspection, they attended the refineries rehabilitation steering committee meeting with key stakeholders.
The refinery project is linked with President Bola Tinubu’s directive to the ministry and NNPCL to fix the nation’s moribund refineries in order to start refining of crude oil locally.
The 110,000bpd capacity Kaduna refinery is one of Nigeria’s four dysfunctional refineries that have produced no petrol for many years, leaving the country to rely heavily on imported petroleum products.
In February 2023, the NNPCL signed an agreement with the Korean company, Daewoo Engineering and Construction Nigeria Limited, for rehabilitation of the refinery. According to official sources, the last turn around maintenance on the refinery was carried out about 15 years ago.
Speaking with journalists after the steering committee meeting and inspection, the minister and GCEO assured that everything was being done to ensure commencement of production on or before December 2024.
Kyari said; “Our plants are in progress and we are putting everything in order to deliver crude stock at the end of that 2024 deadline. The contractor has mobilised to site and every requirement including process of delivering on the expected date are on course. We have started receiving all the equipment and we are very confident we will receive all the appropriate financing and the Kaduna Refinery will start working again and deliver value to Nigeria.
“The quick fix is for 60 percent production capacity so that we can start making money from this plant and then we continue to full length capacity which will also tally with the completion of the Build Operate Transfer (BOT) of the pipeline to have a reliable pipeline delivery infrastructure.”
