Port Harcourt Refinery Will Reopen in December, Says FG

“Warri will start operating by the end of the first quarter of next year, and Kaduna will follow close behind.”

The Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC) Ltd would resume operations by December, according to the Federal Government.

This is a component of the government’s pledge to stop importing petroleum products as soon as efforts are stepped up to rebuild the country’s domestic refining capacity.

According to a statement made on Friday by the Chief Corporate Communications Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Garba Deen Muhammad, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, said this.

During a Friday inspection trip of the Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC) Ltd. plant’s ongoing rehabilitation work, the Minister, according to the report, gave the guarantee.

The Minister predicted that given the rate of progress made on the PHRC rehabilitation project and the presence of his counterpart, the Minister of State for Petroleum (Gas), Hon. Ekperikpe Ekpo, the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Ambassador Gabriel T. Aduda, and the Group CEO of NNPC Ltd., Mr. Mele Kyari, the plant will resume operations by December of this year.

“Our goal in being here today is to make sure that Nigeria stops importing fuel within the next several years. The Port Harcourt Refinery will join the team before the end of the year, based on what we have seen here today.

“Warri will start operating by the end of the first quarter of the following year, and Kaduna will follow close behind. The Minister promised that if you combine that with the Dangote Refinery, we will be able to eliminate fuel importation and Nigerians will fully benefit from deregulation.

Additionally, he expressed satisfaction with the Port Harcourt refinery’s ongoing rehabilitation work and noted that once all refineries are operational again, Nigerians will benefit from a greater supply of petroleum products and domesticated foreign exchange, which will boost the country’s economy.

This statement comes just a few weeks after President Bola Tinubu pledged that the Port Harcourt refinery will start operating in December in an effort to persuade organised workers to end their widespread strike.

Additionally during the visit on Friday, Mr Mele Kyari, Group CEO of NNPC Ltd., stated that the Company is still committed to achieving the national objective of restoring the refineries to their peak performance.

“We are aware of the issues facing our country’s fuel supply. But that is not what we are here for. We are committed to completing this rehabilitation project, as well as those for our other two refineries and any other investments made in the redevelopment of the country’s refining capacity.

We anticipate that this nation will be a net exporter of petroleum products by 2024, according to Kyari.

We are here to enter the field, stated Hon. Ekperikpe Ekpo, Minister of State for Petroleum (Gas) in his own remarks. It was the age of subsidies yesterday. Subsidies don’t exist today. People are in a desperate situation today, trying to figure out how to live and breathe a sigh of relief. You are all aware of how important petrol is to our economy. To make sure the refineries are operating, all hands must be on deck, he said.

The ministers met with the refinery’s Engineering, Procurement & Construction (EPC) Contractors and took part in a meeting of the Refineries Rehabilitation Steering Committee during their visit.