It was jubilation time for the management and staff of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), on Thursday as they witnessed the first flare start up of the Port Harcourt refinery, an event signaling its mechanical readiness to begin real time refining of crude oil into petroleum products, after several years of the plants’ comatose.
Taking journalists on a tour of the refinery, chairman of the newly constituted NNPCL board, Pius Akinyelure said, he was excited that the Federal Government was keeping to its promise of getting all of Nigeria’s refineries back on stream.
Indications are that, as planned, in Phase 3 of the rehabilitation project, the entire refinery allied infrastructure will be restored and upgraded, mostly the fluid catalytic cracking unit and other ancillary operations. It is also expected that support infrastructure such as storage tanks and product assessment laboratories will be fully restored by December 2024.
After the delivery of the Port Harcourt refinery and full refining of products early next year, rehabilitation of the Kaduna, and Wari refineries will resume, former minister of State Timipre Sylva said at a press conference last year October in Abuja.
READ ALSO: NNPCL set to deliver gas revolution with OB3 pipeline project
Stakeholders view this development as a strong intervention that will help the country reduce significantly, the amount of petroleum product importation, while achieving appreciable levels of meeting local supply of products.
According to the NNPCL board chairman Akinyelure, the desire of the government is to reposition all the refineries at their highest levels of production to ensure that Nigeria keeps the prices of petroleum products and supply stable, helping to bring comfort to Nigerians.
Also present at Thursday’s tour was the Minister of state petroleum – gas Ekperikpe Ekpo, and the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO), of the NNPCL Mele Kyari.
“This heralds the commencement of production of petroleum products after the Christmas. We want to thank Nigerians for their patience and trust with the NNPCL to deliver on their promise and mandate for the rehabilitation of the refineries,” minister of petroleum -oil, Heineken Lokpobiri said at the event seen as historic.
According to Heineken, this feet in the oil and gas sector is in fulfillment of President Bola Tinubu’s pledge to bring on stream, phase 1 of the Port Harcourt refinery by the end of 2023, and the subsequent streaming of the phase 2 in 2024.
“We happily announce the mechanical completion and flare start-up on the 20th of December 2023,” the minister noted.
The rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt refinery was awarded to Maire Tecnimont SpA in April, 2021 at the cost of $1.5 billion.The complex consists of a 60,000 barrels per day (bpd) old refinery that started operations in 1965 and a 150,000bpd new refinery that came on stream in 1989.
Among sections of the refinery commissioned during Thursday’s tour, are the control room and all pumps expected to deliver products seamlessly when full refining operation commences.
An excited NNPCL chief executive officer, Kyari told reporters on the Port Harcourt refinery site that the rehabilitation was a great work which is in keeping with the promise made to over 200million Nigerians.
“It is a great work, and for keeping to the promise we made to our chairman and over 200 million Nigerians. We know that this is a promise we can keep.
“We have a competent contractor and sun-constructors. Our staff are extremely determined to deliver on this project and today, we are fulfilled. We are done with the phase 1, we will continue with the phase as we promised within 2024 maximum, the last quarter of 2024 and this value will continue to be seen in our country,” Kyari who was recently reappointed by President Tinubu, explained to journalists at the refinery site.
The continued poor state of Nigeria’s four refineries, two located in Port Harcourt, one in Warri and the other in Kaduna State have been of deep concern to many Nigerians and members of the international community, despite several Turn-Around-Maintenance (TAM) efforts. The level of feet recorded so far at the Port Harcourt refinery, stakeholders believe, is significant and needs to be sustained by the present government.
