About the Kaduna Refinery
The Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company is of the country’s crude oil refineries. It is being managed by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. In 1974, it was decided that a third refinery of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation be established in Kaduna, along side the second refinery located at Warri. The construction of the refinery was to begin when there was enough justification from petroleum products consumed.In the early 1950, the work on the Kaduna Refinery was advanced due to fuel shortages. The refinery was designed to meet up with fuel demands.
When feasibility studies were carried out, the Federal government took into consideration the consumption of the various petroleum products within the Northern region at the time.
It was reported that a Refinery with crude oil capacity of 42,000 barrels per stream day (BPSD) could be easily justified.
The Kaduna refinery was therefore designed for a capacity of 60,000 BPSD. However, after Federal Government made a decision not to allow the capacity for any Nigerian refinery be below 100,000 BPSD.
This was in order to have production of large quantity of heavy ends and also to reprocess the heavy fuels, which was a more practical and viable solution.
This led to the modification of the entire project. Whereby what was initially planned to simply be a hydro skimming type refinery was developed to be an integrated refinery. The design capacity of the fuels plants of the Kaduna Refinery was successfully increased in December 1986, from 50,000 BPSD to 60,000 BPSD. This brought the total installed capacity of the refinery to 110,000 BPSD.
The refinery now had the capacity to produce a wider variety of petroleum products such as lubricating base oils.
Products from the Refinery include;
- Fuels for use as Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG)
- Premium Motor Spirit (PMS)
- Automotive Gas Oil (AGO)
- Diesel oil
- heavy diesel mechanic
- Kerosene
- Fuel Oil
- Sulphur
- Lubricating oils complex which includes Base Oils, Asphalt (Bitumen) and Waxes.
The lubricating oil complex of Kaduna Refinery is one of the largest in Africa. The construction of the refinery was awarded to the Construction Company of Yokohama and Chiyoda Chemical Engineering, Japan in 1977 while a consulting firm, KING WILKINSON of Hague, Holland and NNPC engineers, developed the plan for the refinery.
It was not until 1980 that the Kaduna Refinery project was completed and the Fuels Plant commissioned. The Lubes Plant was commissioned in 1983 while the Petrochemical Plant was not commissioned until much later in 1988.
The initial operation and maintenance of the refinery were carried out by The Nigerian Staff of the refinery were in charge of the operations and maintenance of the refinery while expatriate personnel served as technical back up.
By the year 1985, Nigerian staff was virtually in charge of all the maintenance and operations.
About KRPC
KRPC LIMITED is given the responsibility of refining crude oil into high-quality petroleum products. The company is also into the business of manufacturing petrochemical and packaging of products
The refinery was designed to process both Nigerian Crude and imported paraffinic into fuels and lubes products. The Plant is also designed to derive its entire raw materials which include utility supplies from the Refinery.
The Kaduna Refinery and Petroleum Company Limited were constructed by Chiyoda Chemical Engineering and Construction Company of Japan. The 30,000 MT/Yr. Linear Alkyl Benzene Plant which was under the then PETROCHEMICAL Sector of NNPC was commissioned in March 1988.
KRPC came into being in 1988 when two plants were merged into a single subsidiary company of NNPC. This was to allow for more interdependence, common goal and proximity.
Current State of the Kaduna Refinery
The Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemical Company (KRPC) did not refine any crude oil from February to August 2018. This has recorded a total loss of N18.67billion. According to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, the capacity utilisation of the refinery is at zero. The corporation claimed the KRPC had received commodity but yet did not refine crude oil.
The Kaduna refinery lost 3.81billion in February, N2.63billion in March, N4.22billion in May, N2.98billion in June, N2.35billion in July, and N2.68billion in August. However, a profit of N2.96bn was recorded in April. NNPC also stated that its group trading surplus dropped from N18.11 billion in May to N7.15 billion in June 2018. This implies a loss of N10.96billion within one month. However, the company recorded making N69.31 billion within six months. The analysis of performance shows that KRPC received a78,833 metric tonnes of crude in May and June 2018 but the company processed no crude oil in those two months. The Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company did not refine any crude oil from February 2018 to January 2019. This marked 12 months of dormancy.
Current Business Direction of the KRPC
- KRPC will transit from a cost centre to a profit centre.
- To carry out a well thought out capacity development programme majorly on performance management.
- Stimulate upgrading and Rehabilitation of the Refineries.
- Set the Refineries to be a major global player through re-engineering and technological updates
- Improving aspects of Quality Management System, products and services.
Operation Divisions of KRPC
Process Plants & Oil Movement Units
The operations of the KRPC’s is highly dependent on an adequate supply of water and power. Water is gotten from Kaduna River at the Raw Water Intake facilities which are situated at about 13 kilometres from KRPC installations. The water is chemically treated to meet specifications for the various process units and steam generation.
Fuel Process Plant
The Fuels Plant of the Kaduna Refinery and Petroleum is designed to process Nigerian crude oils in the No.1 Crude Atmospheric and Vacuum distillation Units (CDU 1)
The rest of the Fuels section is made to process a mixture of light and medium fractions from the domestic crude and imported crude oil used in the Lubes Plant.
Products from the Fuels Plant are:
Liquefied Petroleum Gases (LPG)
Premium Motors Spirit (PMS)
Dual Purpose Kerosene (DPK) which is used for household and aviation usage
Fuel Oils
Sulphur Flakes.
The Lube Process Plant
The Lubes Plantconsist of eight (8) units with the capacity to process 50,000 BPSD of imported crude oil into Lube base oils, Asphalt, sulphur and waxes.