The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Ltd has fulfilled its pledge of achieving the mechanical completion of rehabilitation work on Area 5 Plant of the Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC).
NNPCL Chief Corporate Communications Officer Olufemi Soneye said this in a statement Thursday in Abuja.
He said the rehabilitation work had been ongoing at the Refinery for over two years during which the NNPCL pledged to complete the Phase One of the project (mechanical completion and flare start-up) of Old Port Harcourt Refinery (Area 5) by December 31, 2023.
Nigeria’s four refineries of Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna with a combined capacity to process 445,000 barrels per day (bpd) were shut down in 2019.
The commencement of operations is a major boost to the federal government as it seeks to cut down on importation of petroleum products especially with the removal of fuel subsidy.
The total sum of N5.2 trillion was spent in 2022 to import petrol, the highest in 6 years.
Speaking during an inspection tour of the rehabilitation project which also coincided with the 15th Refineries Steerco Meeting, NNPCL Group Chief Executive Officer Mele Kyari said as at December 15th 2023, 84.4 per cent of Area 5 Plant, a key component of the Refinery, and 77.4% of the entire rehabilitation project have been completed.
Quoting Kyari in the statement, Soneye said: “In our quest to ensure that this refinery is re-streamed to continue to deliver value to Nigerians, we made a promise that we will reach a mechanical completion of phase one of the rehabilitation project by the end of December and also get the other plants running in 2024. Today, we have kept to those commitments.”
The GCEO commended the NNPCL’s staff and the EPCIC contractors for doing a great job in ensuring the refinery achieved that significant milestone.
In his remarks, Chairman NNPC Ltd Board Chief Pius Akinyelure described the milestone as “historic”, stressing that the board was proud of the staff and management of the refinery.
“We are just starting. We want to be at the highest level of production so that we will keep the prices of petroleum stable in order to give comfort to our people and also generate more revenue for our country,” Akinyelure noted.
Also speaking, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil) Senator Heineken Lokpobiri described the milestone as another landmark of the renewed hope agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
In August, Lokpobiri had said the Port Harcourt refinery would recommence operations December.
He thanked Nigerians for their patience and the trust they have in the oil company’s ability to deliver on this huge project.
In his address, Minister of State for Petroleum (Gas) Ekperikpe Ekpo said re-streaming the refinery would herald a good omen for the nation’s Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) industry as LPG, also known as cooking gas, is a major bye-product of the refinery.
“The PHRC rehabilitation project, which costs about $1.5bn, is an EPCIC project which covers Engineering, Procurement, Construction, Installation, and Commissioning phases. For Area 5, the Engineering, Procurement, Construction, and Installation have all been completed. The mechanical completion signifies the closure of the Construction and Installation phases.
More importantly, the milestone was achieved under an excellent Health safety & Environment (HSE) record, which stood at over 9.5 million man-hours with zero Loss Time Injury (LTI),” the statement further added.
