Port Harcourt refinery to begin operation in December

The Nigerian government on Wednesday said the country’s biggest refinery will become functional by December.

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, disclosed this while briefing journalists after the federal executive council meeting held Wednesday.

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 Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited said repairs had started after the federal executive council approved $1.5 billion for the project.

Speaking on Wednesday, Mr Sylva said the rehabilitation of the refineries is ongoing.

“As we said earlier, the old refinery in Port Harcourt, which is about 60,000 barrels per day capacity, will be functional by December and, of course, we still have some time in the contracting time to conclude the rest of the Port Harcourt refineries,” Mr Sylva said.

He said works in the Kaduna and Warri refineries are also progressing well.

“We will soon be embarking on an inspection visit and some of you journalists will be able to go with us to ascertain for yourselves what the extent of work is,” he said.

Reacting to a question on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), the minister said “The CNG development, it’s very much in progress.

“That is part of the promises we made, part of the things we want to put in place before the removal of subsidy. Subsidy has still not been removed because some of these conditions that were agreed upon have not been met and we’re definitely working assiduously to ensure that all the facilities are in place, the pumping stations and the conversion kits.

“I can assure you that work is going on very much in that regard. We may not be in a position to announce exactly what we are doing now or where we are, but I can assure you that work is very much ongoing,” he said.