Nigeria’s Government aims to reopen the country’s Kaduna oil refinery by the end of 2024.
Currently undergoing a rehabilitation project, the refinery will have an initial production rate of 60,000 barrels per day.
The announcement was made by Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Heineken Lokpobiri, during an assessment of the ongoing quick-fix project at the Kaduna refinery.
Poised to ensure the West African country’s energy security and socioeconomic development, rehabilitation of the refinery is being overseen by the Government and will involve the participation of local and international service companies, including global energy company, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Limited, and chaebol and auto manufacturer, Daewoo.
“We are very confident that we will get the appropriate financing to get to the end of it, and ultimately, we will start to deliver value to Nigerians again,” NNPC Limited CEO, Mele Kyari stated, adding, “We plan the quick fix for 60,000 barrels per day so that we can start making money from this plant and we can continue the other part of the refinery to bring it up to its full-fledged capacity.”
In February, the NNPC Limited signed a $742 million contract with Daewoo to modernize the Kaduna refinery. Meanwhile, upgrades are currently ongoing at Nigeria’s Port Harcourt and Warri refineries in the country’s north, which is poised to result in a combined capacity of 445,000 barrels per day.
With a nameplate capacity of 110,000 barrels per day, the Kaduna refinery was shut down in 2018 as a result of vandalism limiting crude supplies from the oil-producing Niger Delta in the country’s southern regions.