The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) CEO, Mele Kyari, says the Port Harcourt refinery will kick off production by early August this year, while that of Kaduna will commence by December 2024.
Kyari made this known while speaking at the National Assembly on Monday, July 15. 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.
“Some officials involved in issuing these licenses are still observing the plant. Some of them came in last month and they are still there checking everything. They will also have to test-run the plant and all this will be at their pace. Most of them are foreigners and you can’t rush them.
“They have their integrity to protect, for if anything contrary happens at the refinery, the officials might be held accountable and their insurance firms would have to pay for any damage. So it is not entirely on our part when it comes to the takeoff of the refinery,” a petroleum ministry official, who spoke in confidence due to lack of authorisation to talk about the matter,to Channels TV