Kaduna – The Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company (KRPC) has shut down operations on Jan. 15, due to the non availability of crude oil.

A picture taken on September 16, 2015 shows workers trying to tie a pipe of the first refinery in Nigeria, which was built in 1965 in oil rich Port Harcourt, Rivers State. The Port Harcourt refinery is Nigeria’s oldest, built in 1965, nine years after crude was first found under the marshy soil and creeks of the delta, where the Niger river meanders to the Gulf of Guinea. Refineries in nearby Warri and Kaduna in the north central region were built in the years that followed, while a new plant was added to the same site in Port Harcourt in 1989. In recent years, however, it became a byword for corruption, a murky, state-run body where billions of dollars in revenue apparently disappeared. AFP PHOTO

The Executive Director, Services (EDS), of KRPC, Dr. Abdullahi Idris, disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kaduna.

He said the refinery, whose Fuel Plant was commissioned in 1980, was functioning at 60 per cent capacity “but shut down on January 15 due to unavailability of crude oil”.

Idris responded to an e-mail NAN sent to him to provide details of the company’s operations as part of a national survey on the state of the country’s refineries operated by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

The EDS said the Lubes Plant was commissioned in 1983 and the
Petrochemical Plant in 1988.

According to him, before it was shutdown, the KRPC produced four million litres of petrol (PMS) per day.

Idris explained that the plant was also producing 2.5 million litres of (AGO) Diesel and 1.6 million litres of Kerosene per day.

The official said the Plant had undergone a Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) in 2013 and currently had a workforce of 1,004 staff.

However, a source at the Warri Refining and petrochemical company (WRPC) said that it was incorporated in 1988 following the merger of the Warri Refinery and Ekpan Petrochemical Plants.

According to the source, WRPC, one of the subsidiaries of the NNPC, produces at installed capacity of 125,000 Barrel Per Stream Day (BPSD).

“The WRPC was incorporated in 1988 following the merger of the Warri Refinery and Ekpan Petrochemical Plants which was producing a nameplate capacity of 100,000 BPSD

“Following the merger, WRPC is now designed to produce installed capacity of 125,000 BPSD,’’ he said.
The source, however declined comment as to whether the company was currently refining or not. (NAN)