PREMIUM TIMES gathered that the refinery had been operating at 60 per cent production capacity before commencement of the turn-around maintenance in October 2014.

 

Mr. Mohammed, in an interview after a tour of the refinery with journalists, said the refinery has undergone turn around maintenance.

 

He said it will attain 90 per cent of its 110,000 installed capacity by March 2015.

 

He said, "The 80-90 per cent resumed production of the 30-year-old refinery is equivalent to 3-5million liters of petrol, which is 150 trucks of 30,000 liter capacity truck per day."

 

The MD said the KRPC resumed refining following the completion of its first phase of facility rehabilitation that began in October 2014.

 

"We have opened every column, changed what we can change to give us that level of production," he said. "What is outstanding is crude supply but with the volume we have in stoke, we have started production three days ago. We undertook phased rehabilitation because we do not want to completely shut down the refinery.

"Crude Distillation Unit was tested, Units are running. Basically, we are retracing our steps, one unit after the other. Other essential unit like the FCC will follow by the end of the week."

 

He urged the Federal Government to declare the NNPC pipelines "no go area" to curtail the activities of vandals, which if continued, would hamper the transportation of crude oil from Warri to Kaduna.

 

"I am also urging the Federal Government to deploy the military to provide maximum security to the pipelines to tackle the activities of vandals," he said.

 

Mr. Mohammed said apart from addressing fuel scarcity in the north, the resumption of production at the KRPC would attract employment opportunity in both the formal and the informal sectors.

 

Thousands of transporters would resume lifting of the product thereby providing employment to truck drivers and other stakeholders.

 

"The development will also boost the economy of the region business activities in Kaduna state and availability of products will fully resume," he said. "The banking sector would also be a major beneficiary because of the financial transactions involved in product transportation and a chain of similar business activities."

 

PREMIUM TIMES gathered that, KRPC had embarked on the facility upgrade in line with NNPC's 18-months refineries Phased-Rehabilitation Strategy which began in October 2014.

 

The strategy entails phased and simultaneous rehabilitation of all refineries using in-house and locally available resources and man power in line with the Nigerian Content Law.

 

It also involved the use of Original Equipment Manufacturer representatives to effect major equipment overhaul and rehabilitation.

 

The NNPC on Wednesday July 29 said the Port Harcourt and Warri Refineries had resumed production after the phased rehabilitation which started in October 2014 had been completed. The NNPC had said with the successful re-streaming of the PHRC and WRPC, attention had moved to ensure completion of the second phase of rehabilitation work at KRPC which has 110,000 barrels per day installed capacity.

Source : allafrica.com