Previous Next

NNPC assures of refineries rehabilitation

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) on Monday gave assurance that the December and January 2024 completion dates for all the refineries undergoing rehabilitation still stand.

Its Chief Communication Officer, Femi Soneye made this known to The Nation in a telephone chat.

He said owing to the assurance the contractors have given NNPC, nothing has so far altered the completion dates.

In case of any eventuality that may result in the change of the timeline, NNPCL will not hesitate to make it public, he stated.

He promised that the state owned oil giant will soon unveil the different rehabilitation milestones.

Soneye insisted that the timelines for the completion are still on course.

He said: "What they (contractors) have said is that all things working well, the refineries will be working in December and January.

"That is what has been there and that is what the contractors have said. And we are working on that timeline.

"And as NNPC, we are going around on every milestone, we are pushing out information. So, we are working on that December/January. You know I am not the contractor, my own is to report.

"The assurances we have is that December -January, the refineries will be working.

"And nothing has happened as of now to change that, or to move it forward so we are on course.

"If anything changes, I will defer to you that this is going to happen. But in terms of the timeline, the timeline is still on course."

It would be recalled that the Minister of State for Petroleum (Oil) Senator Heineken Lokpobiri had inspected the ongoing rehabilitations in the last few weeks.

He told State House Correspondents in Abuja that it is NNPC that should be accountable if the timelines for completing the refineries were not met.

Arising from the inspection tour, the Federal Government announced that the rehabilitation of the 110,000 barrels per day Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemicals Company Limited (KRPC) would be completed between October and December 2024.

The Minister revealed that the ongoing quick-fix project would see the 43-year-old facility begin production by the end of 2024, stressing that the optimistic projection was based on the current level of work.

In February this year, the NNPC signed a contract worth $740.6 million with South Korean firm, Daewoo E&C for the repairs of Kaduna Refinery, expected to restore the refinery to 60 per cent of its 110,000 barrels per day name plate.

NNPC said it would be funding the contract using a combination of internally generated revenue and third party financing, explaining that the quick-fix strategy guaranteed the fastest route to re-streaming the refinery.

The refinery was commissioned in 1980 to supply petroleum products to Northern Nigeria, the refinery with an initial capacity of 50,000 barrels per day was expanded to 100,000 barrels per day in 1983, with an additional 50,000 bpd crude train for the production of lubricating oils.

Besides, in 1986, the capacity of the first crude train was expanded to 60,000 BPD to increase the actual crude oil refining nameplate capacity of to 110,000 bpd.

But while assessing the progress of work on the ongoing project at the weekend, Lokpobiri, said he was confident that the refinery would be re-streamed by the end of 2024, considering the, “significant level of progress” he witnessed on the tour.

The minister insisted on holding key players involved in the rehabilitation process of the nation’s refineries accountable and pledge government’s support in ensuring the timely delivery of the project.

According to the minister, there was 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.

Earlier in his remarks, Kyari, reassured the minister that the fuel plant at the refinery would be delivered by the end of 2024.

According to him, all hands were on the deck to bring the refinery back on stream, stressing that the contractor had since been mobilised to the site and the needed equipment for the quick-fix activities were already in place.

The GCEO 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 so as to have a reliable pipeline delivery infrastructure."