Katsina refinery to cost $2 billion, generate more than 2,500 jobs for Nigerian

macfranc007 July 26, 2018 Nigeria News today & Breaking news ▷ Read Naija news 24/7 Tunde Ososanya

- The planned petroleum refinery in Mashi, Katsina state, would cost $2 billion

- The refinery is expected to be completed in 2021 and provide job opportunities for more than 2,500 Nigerians

- It would have the capacity to produce 150,000 barrels per day

A Nigerian investor, Alhaji Ibrahim Zakari, has said that the the private sector-driven Niger Republic facilitated approved petroleum refinery in Mashi, Kastina state would cost $2 billion (N724,720,000,000.00).

The Nations reports that Zakari announced that his company, Blak Oil Energy Refinery had mobilised substantial part of two billion dollars needed for the construction of the refinery.

NAIJ.com gathers that the investor said that the funds were coming United States, Canada, India and the Middle East.

According to him, the crude for the refinery would come from Niger Republic. He said after its completion, the project would provide job opportunities for more than 2,500 Nigerians.

When it's fully completed in 2021, the refinery will have the capacity to produce 150,000 barrels per day.

Nigeria's minister of state for petroleum resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, who signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the construction of the refinery with the Nigerien minister of energy, Foumakaye Gado, on Tuesday, July 24, said: “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.

“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.

“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 percent 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."

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Meanwhile, NAIJ.com previously reported that a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Nigeria and Niger was signed at the State House in Abuja.

President Muhammadu Buhari attended the signing ceremony of MOU of the Nigeria-Niger Hydrocarbon Pipeline and Refinery Projects in the State House on Tuesday, July 24.

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