Breaking News: Port Harcourt Refinery begins operation at 60,000bpd says NNPC
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) on Tuesday said Port Harcourt refinery has commenced production after a long period of rehabilitation.
The NNPC Ltd said the refinery began truck loading of petroleum products on Tuesday 26 November.
Olufemi Soneye, the Chief Communications Cfficer of the company disclosed this in a post on his X handle Tuesday morning.
“PortHarcourt Refinery begins production; truck loading starts today, Tuesday,” Mr Soneye said.
The PortHarcourt Refineries comprise two units, with the old plant having a refining capacity of 60,000 barrels per day (bpd) and the new plant 150,000 bpd, both summing up to 210,000 bpd.
The refinery was shut down in March 2019 for the first phase of repair works after the government secured the service of Italy’s Maire Tecnimont to handle the review of the refinery complex, with oil major Eni appointed technical adviser.
In 2021, NNPC Ltd said repairs had started at PHRC after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved $1.5 billion for the project.
On 21 December 2023, the Nigerian government announced the mechanical completion and the flare start-off of the refinery.
Nigeria owns four refineries, two located in Port Harcourt and one in Warri and Kaduna. But the refineries have been moribund for many years despite Turn-Around-Maintenance (TAM) efforts.
r 2018, the Buhari administration fixed December 2019 as the deadline for three refineries to attain full production capacity to end petroleum importation in the country. Later in the month, the deadline was shifted to 2020.
