Alhaji Saidu Aliyu Mohammed, managing director of KRPC, made the announcement while delivering an address at the opening ceremony of the Annual Energy Correspondents Workshop in Kano. Mohammed said, “Replacement of the weak segments of the pipeline is ongoing. The repair work is expected to be completed on 27 August 2015, and thereafter, crude oil supply to KRPC would resume.”
 

Mohammed also spoke about the supply of crude oil to KRPC, calling it grossly inadequate. “It is still a major challenge to the sustenance of the plant’s operation and needs to be tackled holistically. The incessant vandalism on Warri-Kaduna pipeline is one of the greatest threats to KRPC’s performance. This line needs to be highly secured to guarantee continuous supply of crude oil to KRPC. We advocate for the pipeline to be regarded as ‘Military Zone’ in view of its strategic importance,” he noted.
 

The plant had been closed for turn around maintenance in October last year, and was operating at 60 per cent capacity before that. The third and last phase of repairs on the refinery is expected to be complete in December this year, and the refinery will operate at 90 per cent capacity beginning Q1 2016.

According to Shehu Malami, refinery’s manager in-charge of production programming and quality control, once the 90 per cent of production capacity mark has been reached, KRPC will produce more than 4.6mn litres of petrol, 3.1mn litres of diesel, 1.8mn litres of kerosene and 486,000 litres of LPG. Together, it is expected to save Nigeria US$5.33mn daily from its current fuel import bill.

 

Source : allafrica.com