KADUNA REFINERY TO RESUME OPERATIONS BY DECEMBER.
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| Refinery |
The Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation, NNPC, disclosed yesterday that Kaduna Refinery will resume the
production of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS (petrol), within the next three months.
This was even as NNPC stated that it
had lifted the embargo earlier placed on 113 vessels, banning them from
engaging in crude oil and gas loading activities in any of the terminals within
Nigerian territorial waters.
In a statement by NNPC in Abuja,
Group Managing Director of the corporation, Mr. Ibe Kachikwu, stated that the
Fluid Catalytic Cracking Unit, FCCU, and the fuel section of the refinery would
be brought back to life within this period to ensure that Nigerians continue to
enjoy uninterrupted supply of petroleum products.
Kachikwu, who stated this during a
facility tour of the Kaduna Refining Petrochemical Company, KRPC, said the
refinery will get a turn around that will make it commercially sustainable.
He said: “All the component units of
the refinery, including the FCCU and the fuel section, will be fully
rehabilitated for resumption of crude supply to the plant.
“You will soon have a different
company; we must do all it takes to make this company a success.”
Need for more refineries
He stressed the need for the
establishment of more refineries, especially in view of the low refining
capacity of the country, adding that NNPC is planning to build additional
refineries.
He said: “I am pushing to build new
refineries next to our existing plants to boost the nation’s refining capacity
for the common good.
“The new refineries will be
developed by private investors and NNPC’s role will be just to provide them
with space close to the existing refineries to enable them share key facilities
such as pipelines and storage facilities.”
Also speaking, Group Executive
Director, Refining & Technology, Mr. Dennis Ajulu, expressed optimism in
the ability of NNPC to rise above its challenges and reposition itself on the
path of profitability.
Managing Director of KRPC, Engr.
Saidu Mohammed, said staff of the company were fully aligned to the vision of
commercialization and that they would support Kachikwu in that drive.
Conditional embargo lifting
On the embargo on the 113 oil
vessels, NNPC stated that the lifting of the ban is subject to the receipt of
Letters of Comfort from all terminal operators, oil companies and off-takers of
Nigerian oil and gas as guarantee that nominated vessels, pending the outcome
of investigation, are unencumbered and would not be utilized for any illegal
activity.
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