The ongoing rehabilitation of the Kaduna Refinery will be completed by the end of 2024, the Minister of state for Petroleum resources, Heineken Lokpobiri has disclosed.
Lokpobiri made the disclosure during an inspection tour of the age-long refinery on Saturday.
The Minister, who reiterated the Government’s commitment to end petroleum product importation through the resuscitation of the nation’s refineries.
In February 2023, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) signed an agreement with a Korean Company, Daewoo Engineering and Construction Nigeria Limited for the rehabilitation of the refinery.
The minister’s visitation to the refinery was aimed at assessing the level of the ongoing rehabilitation work under the quick-fix project.
The minister was accompanied by the NNPCL Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari, and other senior officials of the ministry.
The Managing Director of Kaduna Refinery, Mustapha Sugungun, conducted the minister and his team round the plant
According to official sources,the last major maintenance on the refinery was carried out about 15 years ago.
However, with the progress made so far by the contractor handling the rehabilitation work, the petroleum minister hopes that the refinery will come back to life by end of 2024. This optimism was also shared by the NNPCL boss
The 110,000 bpd capacity Kaduna Refinery is one of Nigeria’s four dysfunctional refineries that have produced no petrol for many years
The country has consequently leaving rely heavily on imported petroleum products, thus creating more problems for the country.