The Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company (KRPC) is targeting 90 per cent production capacity by 2019, the Executive Director Services of the company, Abdullahi Idris, said on Monday.

The EDS, in a chat with journalists in Kaduna, said the refinery has been operating at 60 per cent capacity.

“Various interventions have been made to keep the plant running as funds have been made available.

“NNPC is in the final stages of selecting financiers to provide funding and technical expertise to deliver maximum 90% capacity utilisation by end of 2019,” he said.

Mr. Idris said that KRPC currently produces four million litres of petrol, 2.5 million litres of diesel and 1.6 million litres of kerosene daily.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) had on Sunday reported that the refinery shut down operations on January 15, due to the non-availability of crude oil.

Idris, however, clarified: “The refinery was functioning at 60% capacity but shut down on the 15th of January to undertake some critical maintenance activities on the value-adding downstream process units and not due to lack of crude oil as earlier reported.”

“The last full and comprehensive Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) was done in 2008. Since then various interventions have been made to keep the plant running as funds have been made

available.”

He said the refinery, which has 1,004 work force, began operation in 1980.