Nigerians are being congratulated over old Port Harcourt refinery that just came back to life
Nigeria owns a total of four refineries, and so with the rehabilitation of the dual-linked Port Harcourt Refining Company somewhat concluded, it leaves room for the attention to shift to two others.
Just as soon as the Christmas break elapses, Nigerians can look forward to the continuation of crude oil refining at the 210,000 bpd Port Harcourt Refining Company in Rivers State after four years of being redundant.
The confirmation on Thursday, 21 December came through the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri. It marks the commencement of the first phase of rehabilitation at the refinery which has opened room for the next sequence to begin by 2024.
An announcement that the refinery has been revived comes seven months after Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote had his commissioned by the former President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari. Combining this with the state-owned facilities is expected to increase the country’s local output, ensuring that the consumers have enough to use in their households and businesses.
“Just to announce to Nigerians the fulfilment of our pledge to bring on stream phase one of the Port Harcourt refinery by the end of 2023 and the subsequent streaming of phase two in 2024,” Senator Lokpobiri shares with pride.
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The announcement confirmed “the mechanical completion and the flare start-off on the 20th of December 2023”, a box that many Nigerians long hoped officials would have ticked before now.
But the delay is no longer in the picture – it is the fast refining of crude oil that Nigeria’s oil company, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) wants to worry about next.
“This heralds”, says the minister, “the commencement of production of petroleum products after the Christmas break.” And so the minister and his team thought “to thank Nigerians for their patience and trust in the NNPC to deliver on her promise and mandate of rehabilitating our refineries.
“This is also another landmark of the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration. Congratulations to NNPC and congratulations to Nigerians.”
Although some experts praised the move, when President Bola Tinubu decided to stop petrol subsidy payment forever back at his inauguration in May, it led to more Nigerian suffering and critics scolding the removal because many were yet to heal from the scars of living through a pandemic.
Nigeria owns a total of four refineries, and so with the rehabilitation of the dual-linked Port Harcourt Refining Company somewhat concluded, it leaves room for the attention to shift to the remaining facilities in Warri and Kaduna, which have also seen past negligence.
It cost the NNPCL $1.5 billion to perform the needed makeover that got the Port Harcourt refineries back to functioning. The contract it entered in 2021 to bring this about happened with Tecnimont SPA, which is a plant engineering company headquartered in Italy.
Ayodelé is a Lagos-based journalist and the Content and Editorial Coordinator at Meiza. All around the megacity, I am steering diverse lifestyle magazine audiences with ingenious hacks and insights that spur fast, informed decisions in their busy lives.
