By Enyichukwu Enemanna
State-owned oil firm has announced the commencement of oil refinery at the Port Harcourt Refinery in Rivers State after decades of gulping funds in turn-around maintenence.
“PortHarcourt Refinery begins production; truck loading starts today, Tuesday,” Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) announced in a statement on X, formerly Twitter by its chief corporate communications officer, Femi Soneye said.
Nigeria’s government owns four refineries, with Port Harcourt alone housing two, while one is in Warri and another in Kaduna.
They have all remained moribund for many years despite Turn-Around-Maintenance (TAM) efforts that gulps millions of dollars.
Arising from this, Nigeria had solely depended on imported refined products to feed its over 200 million population.
The revived PortHarcourt Refineries comprise two units, with the old plant having a refining capacity of 60,000 barrels per day (bpd) and the new plant 150,000 bpd, both summing up to 210,000 bpd.
The refinery was shut down in March 2019 for the first phase of repair works after the government secured the service of Italy’s Maire Tecnimont to handle the review of the refinery complex, with oil major Eni appointed technical adviser.
In 2021, NNPC Ltd said repairs had started at PHRC after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved $1.5 billion for the project.
On 21 December 2023, the Nigerian government announced the mechanical completion and the flare start-off of the refinery.
Past administrations have promised and made moves aimed at reviving the nation’s refineries to reduce dependency on petrol importation but have failed.
Upon assumption of office, President Bola Tinubu assured that the Port Harcourt Refinery would become functional by December 2023 after numerous failed attempts.
It also promised that Warri would come on stream by the end of the first quarter of 2024, and Kaduna would also come on board towards the end of 2024.
These timelines were however not met.
It remains to be seen how the revived refinery will impact the lives of ordinary people bearing the effect of the economic reforms of the government.
Dangote Refinery, the first private refinery in the country is still struggling to meet the expectations of a large majority of Nigerians who believe that at the depot price of N970 per litre, the relief they had been waiting for is yet to come.
