THE Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company (KRPC), would resume production in two weeks, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has said.
According to Bello Rabiu-Babura, Upstream Chief Operating Officer of the corporation, who gave the indication shortly after he inspected facilities at the KRPC, all the three refineries -Warri, Port Harcourt and Kaduna- would resume refining crude oil for local consumption by the end of April to address the current scarcity.
Rabiu-Babura’s assurance came even as the Group Executive Director (GED) Commercial and Investments (NNPC Ventures), Dr. Babatunde Adeniran said NNPC is adopting a dual approach to permanently solve the problem of perennial fuel scarcity in the country.
The approaches include securing products availability through local refining by the existing three refineries and massive strategic storage of petroleum products in the Corporation’s offshore and on-shore storage facilities.
Adeniran who spoke in Benin, Edo State shortly after assessing the fuel supply situation said that supply of products would start getting normalised beginning from the first week of April.
Listing causes of fuel scarcity to include inadequate forex, configuring refineries abroad from winter to summer and pipeline vandalism, Adeniran said “fuel will soon be available as soon as we have this summer configuration which is peculiar to Nigeria needs.”
“Nobody is happy with what is happening despite all the efforts we have put in place. The bottom line is the amount of forex available. The problem is not peculiar to Nigeria alone. Refineries in Europe are changing their configuration from winter to summer.
“Our refineries are coming up. We can now supply crude to Port Harcourt and Warri. We are making effort to push crude to Kaduna refinery. To push crude to Kaduna will take about 10 days. They are warming up already in Kaduna to receive crudes”, he said.
He said the NNPC was planning strategic storage of products both offshore and on land to secure products and appealed to pipeline vandals to desist from sabotaging the Corporation’s facilities.
“If pipelines are working, there would not have been products scarcity. All these facilities put in place by government for the benefit of the people should be taken care of”, the GED said.
Rabiu-Babura said local crude refining at the KRPC would address the scarcity being experienced, especially in the Northern region.
“With what I have seen and the current effort of the Minister of State for Petroleum and the NNPC, all necessary arrangements are being put in place to ensure that the company resumes production. We are optimistic that in the next two weeks the refinery will resume production, and by the end of April all the other three refineries in the country will resume full production,” he added.
Rabiu-Babura, who doubles as the Group Executive Director (GED) Upstream, said the Federal Government and NNPC, in particular, were working round the clock to end the fuel scarcity.
The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA, has said there is no plan to increase the official price of petrol in the country. The agency also said the state oil firm, NNPC, would have 41.73 per cent allocation for supply of Premium Motor Spirit in the second quarter.
This is contained in a statement signed by Lanre Oladele, Head, Corporate Services, on Sunday in Abuja.
“The NNPC has 41.73 per cent of the total allocation, while the rest of the oil Marketing Companies got a total allocation of 58.27 per cent.
According to the statement, the Acting Executive Secretary of PPPRA, Sotonye Iyoyo, says the agency will retain the retail prices of N86.00 for the NNPC, and N86.50 for the other Marketing companies.
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