By Enyichukwu Enemanna
The Federal Government of Nigeria has assured that the rehabilitation work going on at the Port Harcourt old refinery will be completed before the end of the year.
The government has also assured that the 60,000 per day capacity refinery will be put to use, bringing the country closer to ending importation of petroleum products.
Briefing journalists on Wednesday shortly after the weekly Federal Executive Council meeting chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, said the development of the compressed natural gas (CNG) is still ongoing.
He added that it was one of the steps that must be achieved before the removal of petrol subsidy on petroleum petrol.
“On 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,” the Minister stated.
Apart from the Port Harcourt old refinery, he also hinted that works are also progressing on both the Warri and Kaduna refineries expected to be put into use at a date later than December this year.
He 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.
“Works in the Kaduna and Warri refineries are also in progressing very 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.
“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.”
