The Federal Government has confirmed that the Port Harcourt Refinery would commence operations in first quarter of 2023.
Speaking in the company of the Minister of State for Petroleum, Chief Timipre Sylva, the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Mele Kyari, said that the commencement of operations at the 60,000 barrels per day Port Harcourt Refinery has been shifted from December 2022 to the first quarter of this year, stressing that the facility had been completed.
He said, “I announced last year, and from the very beginning, we have been saying the same thing, we didn’t say that we are going to complete the rehabilitation of the two refineries in Port Harcourt by May this year.
“We have promised that the 60,000 barrels per day refinery, within Port Harcourt refinery, will be rehabilitated by end of the fourth quarter of 2022.”
Kyari said, “The total rehabilitation of the refinery will take 42 months from the date of award of the contract. Typical of every refinery, we do the rehabilitation in phases.
“And we promise to start up the fuel plant, which is 60,000 barrels per day component of this activity by the last quarter of 2022, but this is not practical. But we will start it up in the first quarter of 2023. Otherwise, every other process is going on.”
Reacting to the remarks of the NNPC boss, the Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva said, “In other words, what he is saying is that the rehabilitation of the 60,000 barrels per day refinery has been completed and is going to be started in the first quarter of 2023 as promised.”
He revealed that the Federal Government had acquired shares in four private refineries operating in different parts of the country as part of the plans to ensure Nigeria’s energy security.
Sylva listed the refineries to include the 650,000 barrels per day integrated Dangote Refinery in Lagos; 12,000bpd Azikel Modular Refinery in Bayelsa; 5,000bpd Waltersmith Modular Refinery in Imo; and 2,500bpd Duport Modular Refinery in Edo.
Commenting on the Federal Government’s equity in these refineries, Sylva said that the government has a 20percent stake in the Dangote Refinery, adding that the government had also bought shares in three other refineries.
The minister said, “We have 20percent equity in Dangote Refinery and we have also taken 20percent equity in Azikel Refinery. We took 30percent in Waltersmith, and we also have 30percent in Duport Refinery.
“Duport Refinery is already finished. They’ve concluded the construction. It only remains to start operations. I’m sure that within the next month or so, Duport Refinery will also start operations.”
The minister explained that the Dangote Refinery already had an established contract with NNPC, in terms of crude oil supply, but noted that some modular refineries usually accessed crude oil from assets closer to the plants.
He stated, “So, they (modular refineries) have this (crude oil supply) contract with private sector owners of these assets that are near them,” he stated.
