Katsina Refinery with Daily Production Capacity of 150, 000 Barrels to Be Ready In 2021 – Kachikwu

Abiodun Oba

An approved private sector driven Refinery in Mashi, Katsina State with daily production capacity of 15, 000 barrels will be completed in 2021.

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, made this known to State House correspondents in Abuja.

Kachikwu and the Nigerien Minister of Energy, Foumakaye Gado had on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Nigeria and Niger Republic on the construction of the refinery at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

“However, presently, we have mentally structured our minds for a three-year period to finish the work on the refinery but that depends on what we find during the technical studies.’’

According to the minister, there is potential to also establish another extension of the refinery in Kaduna State.

“It’s going to be in Katsina but there is a potential for an extension to Kaduna but bear in mind, this started first from a perspective of they (Niger) wanting to build a pipeline from Niger to Kaduna refinery.

“But at the Board of NNPC, we shut that down because the asset quality of the crude from Niger was not the same with our own and we would have had to take almost 90 per cent of our own crude to match their own 10 per cent of crude so it just didn’t make any sense.

“So at that point, we decided to do a refinery that is targeted at their crude,’’ he further explained.