BREAKING: Port Harcourt Refinery Recommences Operation After Years Of Shutdown (WHAT TO KNOW)

BREAKING: Port Harcourt Refinery Recommences Operation After Years Of Shutdown (WHAT TO KNOW)

The Port Harcourt Refining Company in Rivers State has resumed operations in alignment with the Federal Government’s commitment to ensuring the production of refined products at the facility by December 2023.

This development follows several years of suboptimal performance and turnaround maintenance of the facility.

The combined capacity of Nigeria’s refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna is 445,000 barrels per day (bpd), but they were shut down in 2019.

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In August, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, announced that the refinery would restart operations in December. This information was shared during an inspection tour to assess the progress of rehabilitation work at the PHRC Ltd. plant.

“Our objective in coming here today is to ensure that in the next few years, Nigeria stops fuel importation. From what we have seen here today, Port Harcourt Refinery will come on board by the end of the year,” he said during the visit.

“We are happy to announce that the rehabilitation of productivity refinery will commence in three phases,” the then-Minister of Petroleum (State) Timipre Sylva told reporters.

“The first phase is to be completed in 18 months, which will take the refinery to a production of 90 percent of its nameplate capacity,” said Sylva, adding that the second phase would be completed in 24 months and the third in 44 months.

Despite being Africa’s leading oil producer, Nigeria has traditionally relied on importing petroleum products due to inadequate domestic refining capacity, resulting in frequent fuel shortages.

As part of the effort to revamp the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), the government has been actively working to enhance the capacity of the underperforming state-owned refineries.

The resumption of refinery operations at facilities like Port Harcourt, coupled with the initiation of similar efforts at the Dangote Refinery, is anticipated to enhance fuel supply in Africa’s largest oil-producing nation.

Additionally, it is expected to contribute to cost savings on refined fuel and other petroleum products for the country.

The removal of fuel subsidies is also anticipated to impact the cost of the product.

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