110,000 barrels/day Kaduna refinery to be ready by Q4, 2024, says Sen. Lokpobiri, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil)
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, during the tour of the ongoing quick-fix project at the Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemicals Company Limited, KRPC
Oredola Adeola
Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Crude Oil), has revealed that the ongoing quick-fix project at the 110,000 barrels-a-day Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemicals Company Limited, KRPC, will be back on stream by the end of 2024.
The Minister disclosed this during an inspection tour of Kaduna Refinery & Petrochemicals while assessing the progress of work on the ongoing quick-fix project of the Refinery in Kaduna on Saturday.
Lokpobiri, further reaffirmed that the Kaduna refinery will be back on stream by the end of 2024, considering the “significant level of progress” he has witnessed on the tour.
The Minister, who observed that he would continue to hold key players involved in the rehabilitation process of the nation’s refineries accountable, also pledged Federal Government support in ensuring the timely delivery of the project.
According to the Minister, there is an urgent need to get the refinery back on stream for the nation’s economic prosperity and energy security, which are both paths to sustainable development.
Mele Kyari, Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC Ltd., in his remarks, assured the Minister that the fuel plant at the refinery will be delivered by the end of 2024.
Kyari said that all hands are on deck to bring the refinery back onstream, stressing that the contractor has since mobilized to the site and the needed equipment for the quick-fix activities is already in place.
He said, “We are very confident that we will get the appropriate financing to get to the end of it, and ultimately, we will start to deliver value to Nigerians again.
“We plan the quick fix for 60,000 barrels per day so that we can start making money from this plant and we can continue the other part of the refinery to bring it up to its full-fledged capacity.
“This will also tally with the completion of the Build, Operate, and Transfer (BOT) on the pipeline to have a reliable pipeline delivery infrastructure,” the GCEO stated.
EnergyDay’s check showed that in August 2021, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved $1.48 billion for the rehabilitation of the Warri and Kaduna refineries.
It was established that $897 million would be spent to repair the Warri refinery, while the Kaduna refinery would gulp $586 million.
The contracts were awarded to Messers Saipem SPA and Saipem Contracting Limited, and the refineries will be rehabilitated in three phases of 21, 23, and 33 months.
In October 2022, in Seoul, South Korea, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Ltd signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Daewoo Group of South Korea for the rehabilitation of the Kaduna refinery.
Daewoo’s quick-fix repair contract was expected to restore the production at the 110,000 barrels-a-day facility to at least 60% of its capacity by the end of 2024.
