March 12, 2012:

THE Fluid Catalytic Cracking Unit (FCCU), an essential unit of the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company (KRPC) has been revived after 13 years of redundancy.    A very senior official of the refinery, who pleaded for anonymity, told members of the Correspondent Chapel of Kaduna, who were at the refinery on a media tour recently, that the revitalisation of the unit has raised the 110,000 barrel per day production capacity of the refinery by over 70 percent. According to the source, the FCC Unit that forms part of the 23 other units will improve on the production and supply of basic refined products such as Dual Purpose Kerosene (DPK), Wax that are expected to service and increase the supply rate to consumers. It will also reduce the lingering shortage of the commodity in Nigeria.

'The FCCU has been in operation for the past 3 months or so and has stabilized. This has brought tremendous progress to our operational activities and has also improved to a large extent, the production capacity of mostly some products that are scarce in the country.’   He called for the speedy passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) into law and suggested that the bill, if assented to, would enable refineries obtain autonomy that would help to increase the production capacity and funds needed for the smooth operation and maintenance of the industry. Only recently, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation had accused the Nigerian Customs Service and the Nigerian Navy at the ports of being responsible for the shortfall in fuel supply that led to the emergence of queues at fuel stations in some cities across the country, especially in the Lagos area.

The Group General Manager Public Affairs of the Corporation, Dr Levi Ajuonuma, who spoke at a press briefing recently, had explained that many products-laden vessels which ought to have discharged have been detained at the Apapa Port for three weeks by the Customs and Navy, thereby causing a hitch in the product supply system.  He said the most worrisome aspect of this development is that, the vessels are detained at the berthing point such that other vessels with petroleum products are deprived from berthing and discharging thereby creating an armada while what is kept in strategic reserve is depleting.

By Moment Nigerian Newspapers