The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited says the new Port Harcourt refinery is over 90 percent completed.
The Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC) operates two refineries; the old plant with a capacity of 60,000 barrels per stream day (bpsd) and a new facility with 150,000 bpsd — bringing the refinery’s combined crude processing capacity to 210,000 bpsd.
Mele Kyari, group chief executive officer of NNPC, spoke on Monday when Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) labour leaders visited the facility in Rivers state.
Represented by Isiyaku Abudulai, NNPC’s executive vice-president, downstream, Kyari said the new Port Harcourt refinery is under rehabilitation and would be updated soon.
“When the rehabilitation is completed, it will be up and running and to the state of art compared to any refinery around the world. So, There will be compliance to health and safety compliance (HSC),” he said.
“All the assurances of compliance will be made. And that is why a total rehabilitation is being made. From the contractor’s view, Tecnimont SPA , and from the reports they send us, they are up to over 90 percent completed and we will deal with that as soon as possible.
“We are following up too to ensure that we get value and that we have a combined 60,000 bpsd and 150,000 bpsd to get 210,000 bpsd, so that that will support our refining processes, our products, and with the multiple effects that we have on our refining products, finished products, that we desire in this country.”
Kyari said once the feat is achieved, the refinery can propel sufficiency, exports and imports, and local consumption of petroleum products, especially petrol.
Speaking further, he said the NNPC has ensured that there is an established and professional technical operations and maintenance (O&M) team that would continue to operate and maintain the facilities.
Kyari said around the world, if proper rehabilitation — including turnaround maintenance — is not carried out, there will be issues.
“And that also involves looking at the processes and the assets, replacing those aging items that need to be changed and ensuring that the refinery is up and doing,” he said.
“I think that’s the fundamental, and as I said, we are looking at the best O&M teams around the world to support that process.”
The GCEO said the company would scale up monitoring to ensure that “we comply with the best practices around the refinery across the world”.
On November 26, the old Port Harcourt refinery commenced crude oil processing after several years of being moribund.
The state-owned plant also commenced the loading of petroleum products for trucks.
