Nigeria, Africa's largest oil producer, is about to embark on another oil refinery project, focusing on the rehabilitation of a dilapidated refinery.
The project comes just months after Africa's richest man, Dangote, launched his oil refinery.
Heineken Lokpobiri, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Petroleum), has stated that the ongoing restoration of the Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemicals Company (KRPC), located in the Northern Region of Nigeria, will be completed in time for operations to commence in the fourth quarter of 2024.
This was revealed by Lokpobiri during an inspection visit to the Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemicals on Saturday, according to a press release from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited. Lokpobiri was assessing the progress of work on the current quick-fix project at the Kaduna refinery.
Compte tenu du « niveau de progrès significatif » qu’il a constaté lors de l’excursion, Lokpobiri s’est dit convaincu que la raffinerie sera restaurée d’ici la fin de 2024.
The Minister pledged the federal government's support to ensure the project's swift completion and said he would continue to hold the key players accountable for repairing the country's refineries.
He noted that the refinery must be restarted immediately in order to support both the country's economic growth and energy security, both of which are prerequisites for sustainable development.
NNPC Ltd Group CEO Mele Kyari told the Minister at the event that the refinery's fuel plant would be delivered by the end of 2024.
« Nous sommes convaincus que nous obtiendrons le financement approprié pour aller au bout et qu’à terme, nous recommencerons à apporter de la valeur aux Nigérians.
We're planning a rapid solution to produce 60,000 barrels a day so that we can start making money from this plant and can continue with the other part of the refinery to bring it up to full capacity.
Cela correspondra également à l’achèvement des travaux de construction, d’exploitation et de transfert (BOT) du pipeline afin de disposer d’une infrastructure de livraison de pipeline fiable », a said Mele Kyari.
According to the Nigerian business newspaper Nairametrics, « la NNPC a signé en février un contrat de service de maintenance de 741 millions de dollars avec une société d’ingénierie sud-coréenne, Daewoo Engineering and Construction Company Limited, pour une réparation rapide de la Kaduna Refinery and Petroleum Company (KRPC). « .
The publication also noted that In October 2022, the state-owned oil company and Daewoo signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to rehabilitate the Kaduna refinery, which has a capacity of 110 barrels per day. The Daewoo group is also involved in the rehabilitation work under way at the Warri refinery, which is due to start operating by 2023.
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) had already authorised the rehabilitation of the Warri and Kaduna refineries for a total of $1.4 billion in August 2021.
With a combined capacity of 210,000 barrels per day, NNPC had already hired Italy's Maire Tecnimont SpA to renovate two of its refineries at the Port Harcourt oil hub. The project was mainly financed by a $1 billion loan from the Cairo-based African Export-Import Bank (Afeximbank).