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Nigeria's Kaduna oil refinery shut down
REUTER
Lagos: Nigeria's 1,10,000 barrels per day (bpd) northern Kaduna oil refinery has been shut due to technical problems with the production units, officials of the state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation said on Friday. They said that the Kaduna plant was shut down on Thursday. "There were technical hitches in some of the units, so the plant was shut down for maintenance," an official said. He did not say how long the work would take but said Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation's group managing director Jackson Gaius-Obaseki visited the plant on Thursday for an on-the-spot assesssment.Gaius-Obaseki said that the Kaduna refinery was not producing at an appreciable level due to technical problems. The repairs of the refinery were a source of friction between the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and French oil firm TotalFinaElf which won the $214 million contract for the work. While TotalFinaElf, which began the repairs in March 1998, planned to complete work early next year, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation insisted the job must be completed by September this year. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation said it was scaling down on fuel imports for the fourth quarter 2000, based on an expected increase in domestic supply of petroleum products after the completion of repairs of the refineries. Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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