The Nigerian government has assured that the timeline set for the mechanical completion of the Port Harcourt Refinery Company (PHRC) remains.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) Chief Communications Officer, Olufemi Soneye stated this on Sunday.
“We have said from time that by the end of December, the mechanical completion of the refinery will be completed. Yes, we are still maintaining that. Nothing has changed,”
Soneye had on November 6, 2023, assured that the NNPCL was optimistic about the completion of the rehabilitation this month.
He said that the contractors have given their assurance and are optimistic about meeting the deadline. The spokesman said nothing had so far altered the completion date. owing to the assurance
He added: “What they (contractors) said is that all things working well, the refineries will be working in December and January.
“That is what has been there and the contractors have said. And we are working on that timeline.
“And as NNPC, we are going around on every milestone we are pushing out information. So, we are working on that December/January.
You know I am not the contractor, my own is to report.
“The assurance we have is that in December/January, the refineries will be working.
“And nothing has happened as of now to change that or to move it forward so we are on course.
“If anything changes, I will defer to you that this will happen. But in terms of the timeline, the timeline is still on course.”
Minister of State for Petroleum (Oil) Heineken Lokpobiri said during an inspection of the facility that the NNPCL should be accountable if the December end timeline was unmet.
The rehabilitation of the 110,000 barrels per day Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemicals Company Limited (KRPC) is expected to be completed between October and December 2024. The work was awarded last February to a South Korean firm, Daewoo E&C at $740.6 million.
The Nigerian government had earlier in August said the Port Harcourt refinery will become functional by December.
A statement from the Oil firm said the 60,000 barrels per day Port Harcourt Refinery was shut in March 2019 for the first phase of repair works after the government secured the service of Italy’s Maire Tecnimont to handle the scoping of the refinery complex, with oil major Eni appointed as a technical adviser.
In 2021, the NNPCL said repairs had started after the federal executive council approved $1.5 billion for the project. Last September, the then Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, said the country’s biggest crude refinery in Port Harcourt would restart operation in December after it had completed a revamp that began over a year ago. But the timelines were unmet.
Nigeria is a major oil producer but doesn’t refine its oil. So even though it produces crude oil, it still has to import it, which makes it expensive. One of the world’s largest refineries, the Dangote Refinery opened in Nigeria this year. But still, it will likely be years before Nigerians feel its impact.
“The fuel subsidy is gone,” President Bola Ahmed Tinubu announced to the surprise of many at his inauguration at the end of May.
The subsidy has been in place since the 1970s and ensured Nigerians paid far less for fuel than the market rate.