By Damilare Adeleye
The Federal government of Nigeria has announced the completion of Rehabilitation exercise at the Port Harcourt Refinery.
It was learnt that with the completion of the project, the refining of Petroleum products in Nigeria is expected to commence immediately after the Christmas break.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, revealed this on Thursday during the 15th Refineries Rehabilitation Steering Committee Meeting held in Port Harcourt.
The meeting was attended by the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Mallam Mele Kyari; NNPC Limited’s Executive Vice President, Upstream, Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan; and the NNPC Board Chairman Chief Pius Akinyelure.
The Old Port Harcourt Refinery (OPHR) was commissioned in 1965 with a capacity of 35,000 BPSD.
This rose to the current capacity of 60,000 BPSD after de-bottlenecking in 1972.
The New Port Harcourt Refinery (NPHR) was commissioned in March 1989 and has a capacity of 150,000BPSD.
The Minister said bringing back the refineries to their optimal levels is a national aspiration, and the government remains focused on delivering that.
He said, “This is just to announce to Nigerians that in fulfilment of our pledge to bring on stream phase 1 of the PH refinery by the end of 2023 and the subsequent streaming of phase 2 in 2024, we heartily announce the mechanical completion and flare up of the refinery on the 20th of December 2023. This heralds the commencement of production of petroluem products after the Christmas break.
“We want to thank Nigerians for their patience and trust in the NNPC to deliver on our promise and mandate for the rehabilitation of our refineries.”
Also speaking, Kyari said the NNPC Limited remains committed to ensuring that the Port Harcourt refinery is up and running efficiently.
“We have done a great job to ensure this project works. We have been working on this project 24 hours daily, and we are happy they are delivering on this task,” he said.
