The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), has reaffirmed its preparedness to commence crude oil refining at the Port Harcourt refinery in early August. This was revealed by the NNPCL Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari, on Monday while addressing an emergency session at the National Assembly joint committee on finance.
Kyari explained that the Port Harcourt refinery will begin production in early August of this year, while the Kaduna refinery will begin in December 2024.
Kyari, who had previously announced two weeks from March 2024 as the start date for production at the Port Harcourt refinery, insisted that ‘he is not lying’ as he repeated the revised August date.
He believes that with the Dangote refinery, Nigeria can achieve two million barrels per day and become a net exporter of petroleum products by December.
On Saturday, senior officials at the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources and the NNPCL disclosed that the facility is currently undergoing various licencing processes, following the supply of crude to the plant after it was mechanically completed in December 2023.
The PH refinery complex has two refineries in Alesa-Eleme, near Port Harcourt in Rivers State. Port Harcourt II (New Refinery) is a complex conversion refinery with a nameplate distillation capacity of 7,500,000 MTA (150,000 bpd). It began operations in 1988 and was originally planned to serve as an export refinery. Given the regular interruptions in supplies from Nigeria’s other three refineries, it has since been committed to domestic market servicing. Port Harcourt II has extensive clean fuel capabilities, including lead-free petrol.
Similarly, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, also insisted that the plant was at its final rehabilitation stage.
“The mechanical work at the Port Harcourt refinery has been completed. Also, crude oil has been sent to the plant. What is being awaited now has to do with licensing and the like. Now, these licenses are given based on some set of time-frames.
“Some officials engaged in issuing these licences are still monitoring the plant. Some of them arrived last month and are still there examining things. They will also have to test run the plant, which will be done at their own leisure. Most of them are foreigners, and you cannot rush them.
“They have their credibility to protect, because if something goes wrong at the refinery, the authorities might be held guilty, and their insurance companies would have to pay for the damage. So it is not totally our fault when it comes to the refinery’s start-up,” said a petroleum ministry official who spoke on the condition of anonymity owing to a lack of authority to discuss the topic.
In March this year, the Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC, Mele Kyari, said the Port Harcourt refinery had received 450,000 barrels of crude oil and would begin operations in April. This, however, did not happen.
Kyari had disclosed this at a press briefing after he appeared before the Senate Ad-hoc Committee investigating the various Turn Around Maintenance projects of the country’s refineries.
“We completed the refinery mechanically, just as we promised in December. We now have crude oil stored in the refinery. We are conducting the regulatory compliance tests that are required of all refineries before they begin operations, and I can guarantee you that the Port Harcourt refinery will begin operations within the next two weeks.
“Completing the mechanical work indicates you are finished with the rehabilitation work; now you must test to see how it functions. Of course, we have completed the mechanical work at the Warri refinery. It is also undergoing regulatory compliance; we are working with our regulator to complete these processes, and it will be available soon.
“The Kaduna refinery will be ready by December. We have not yet reached that stage in Kaduna, but we promise it will be ready by December’, the NNPC CEO added.
