The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has insisted that the renovated Port Harcourt refinery is still operational.
The state-owned oil giant clarified that preparations for loading operations on Saturday were underway. This was stated in a release by Olufemi Soneye, the NNPC’s Chief Corporate Communications Officer, on Saturday.
In response to a report claiming that the refinery had stopped loading petroleum products barely one month after it was officially opened, Soneye confirmed that the refinery is fully operational, as verified a few days ago by former NNPC Group Managing Director Mele Kyari.
There had been reports that, less than a month after the Port Harcourt Refining Company seemed to have resumed production, the facility had stopped working.
In reaction, Soneye stated that preparations for loading were ongoing at the time the statement was issued.
“The attention of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has been drawn to reports in a section of the media alleging that the Old Port Harcourt Refinery, which was re-streamed two months ago, has been shut down. We wish to clarify that such reports are totally false, as the refinery is fully operational, as verified a few days ago by former Group Managing Directors of NNPC,” he said in the statement.
He urged the public to disregard the report, stating that the malicious claims were the work of individuals attempting to create artificial scarcity and exploit Nigerians.
“Members of the public are advised to discountenance such reports, as they are the figments of the imagination of those who want to create artificial scarcity and rip off Nigerians,” he stressed.
For decades, efforts to revive the Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC) seemed insurmountable. However, under Mele Kyari’s leadership, the once-elusive goal has been realized, signaling a critical step toward achieving energy self-sufficiency. This success is not only a milestone for the NNPCL but a testament to Kyari’s resolve to transform Nigeria’s energy landscape.
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The Port Harcourt Refinery Company in Eleme is a sprawling facility divided into a 60,000-barrel-per-day-old refinery and a new one capable of refining 150,000 barrels per day. The old refinery, operational since 1965, is Nigeria’s first refinery and had remained idle since 1990 when the newer unit became the primary production hub.
After over 30 years of dormancy, the old Port Harcourt refinery, which has a unique configuration where one barrel of crude oil yields a maximum of 23–24 percent gasoline, was recently reopened by NNPC Limited, despite opposition to the revival of the country’s four refineries.
After the $1.5 billion approved by the Federal Government in 2021 for the comprehensive rehabilitation of the refinery was judiciously spent, the NNPCL, under Kyari’s sound leadership, reopened the Old Port Harcourt Refinery on Tuesday, November 26, 2024.
As of now, the old Port Harcourt refinery is producing straight-run gasoline (Naphtha) blended into 1.4 million liters of PMS daily, 900,000 liters of kerosene, 1.5 million liters of Automotive Gas Oil (Diesel), 2.1 million liters of Low Pour Fuel Oil (LPFO), and additional volumes of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), also known as cooking gas.
NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
