The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has reiterated its commitment to the upgrade and expansion of the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company Limited (KRPC) in line with the 12 key business focus areas of the Corporation present management in order to return it to the path of growth and profitability.The Group Managing Director of the Corporation, Dr. Maikanti Baru made this commitment during a townhall meeting with management and staff of KRPC in Kaduna.
Dr. Baru stated that efforts are ongoing to explore the possibilities of piping crude oil from Niger Republic to be refined in KRPC adding that President Muhammadu Buhari was personally committed to the project.
He said it was important to explore alternative crude supply to KRPC, which has been affected by vandalism of pipelines and obsolescence assuring that the initiative will reduce downtime of the plant and ensure optimal utilisation.
He said it was important to explore alternative crude supply to KRPC, which has been affected by vandalism of pipelines and obsolescence assuring that the initiative will reduce downtime of the plant and ensure optimal utilisation.
Dr. Baru said; “due to challenges with the aged refinery and crude oil pipelines that had been breached severally, the operations of the refinery has been epileptic. This we are determined to resolve through various intervention methods including evaluation of alternative crude oil supply from Niger Republic through building of a pipelines of over 1, 000 kilometers from Agadem to Kaduna. That efforts is being championed by Mr. President himself.“
According to him, the Corporation has already started engagements with the Nigerien Minister of Petroleum and the Chinese that are operating the field at Agadem.
The NNPC helmsman promised to drive the energy supply project to power industries in Kaduna by ensuring the completion of the Ajaokuta-Abuja-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) gas pipeline.
Earlier, the Managing Director of KRPC, Mal. Idi Mukhtar, said the Fluid Cracking Catalytic Unit (FCCU) of the plant was restreamed in June.
“The Kerosene Hydrotreating Unit (KHU) rehabilitation is ongoing with the equipment overhaul and integrity checks. When operational the margin of value addition on kerosene and Aviation Turbine Kerosene (ATK) will provide millions of naira in revenue, even at a throughput of 60 per cent,” Mal. Mukhtar assured.
It would be recalled that the refinery was designed to process both imported paraffinic and Nigerian crude oils into fuels and lubes products and was constructed by Chiyoda Chemical Engineering and Construction Company (now Chiyoda Corporation) of Japan. In December 1986, the design capacity of the fuels plants of the Refinery was successfully debottolnecked from 50,000 BPSD to 60,000 BPSD, bringing the total refinery installed capacity to 110,000 BPSD.
