The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), has again 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 kick off production by early August this year, while that of Kaduna will commence by December 2024.
Kyari who had earlier announced two weeks from March 2024 as the kick-off date for production from the Port Harcourt refinery, maintained that ‘he is not lying’, as he reaffirmed the new August date.
According to him, with the Dangote refinery, the target for Nigeria to attain two million barrels per day, and become a net exporter of petroleum products by December is feasible.
The PH refinery complex comprises two refineries at 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 came on stream in 1988 and was originally intended to serve as an export refinery. It has been subsequently dedicated to domestic market service given frequent interruptions in supply from the other three refineries in Nigeria. Port Harcourt II has considerable clean fuel capability, including lead-free gasoline.
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.
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.
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