-The students of the department built a refinery with a capacity to process one barrel of crude oil per day

– The refinery would be used mainly for the training of students

The department of chemical engineering of the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, has built a refinery with a capacity to process one barrel of crude oil per day.

However, the refinery would be used mainly for the training of the students, team leader of the project, Professor Ibrahim Ali Muhammad Dabo told Daily Trust.

Dabo however stated that the department had the manpower to build a refinery that would be bigger than that of Kaduna if it had government support.

His words: “The initial idea was to construct a 1,000 barrel-capacity refinery, but lack of funding limited us to this one, where we would now be refining one barrel per day.

“Only the controls were sourced from Hong Kong. No expatriate was hired from abroad. All those that were engaged in this project are Nigerians.

“Therefore, this mini refinery is a product of Nigerian brains. If government can come in, we have the ability to do wonderful things, not only refinery.

“This is our training and it is what our department is meant for,” he said.

According to Dabo, the project which cost N20million had more than 80 per cent of the materials used for the construction sourced locally.

He further stated that the idea of the mini refinery was conceived about 15 years back, but work commenced fully in the year 2011.

The money will however be paid in the form of barrels of new crude production over the next five years.