The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) said Tuesday that the Port Harcourt Refining and Petrochemical Company in Rivers State had finally commenced the production of petrol.
The spokesman for the national oil company, Mr Olufemi Soneye, confirmed the development on his X handle.
“NNPC Ltd Delivers Port Harcourt Refinery as plant begins truck out of products today, Tuesday 26th November 2024 at 1.45 pm.
“Watch the commissioning and trucking out event LIVE.”
The plant has a capacity of 60,000 barrels per day and has for years been undergoing rehabilitation.
It was learnt that the refinery would start releasing petrol, diesel, and others into the Nigerian market.
The refinery is one of the three owned by the federal government and managed by the NNPCL.
Recall that the federal government had in March 2021 approved $1.5 billion (about N600 billion) for the rehabilitation of the refinery.
The contract was awarded to an Italian firm, Tecnimont SPA in 2021.
According to the former minister of state for petroleum resources, Mr. Timpre Sylva, the rehabilitation would be done in three phases of 18, 24 and 44 months.
He said funding of the repairs will be from many components including the NNPCL, internally generated revenue (IGR), budgetary provisions and Afreximbank.
In December 2023, Sylva’s successor, Mr Heineken Lokpobiri, announced that the facility was billed to commence production of petroleum products after the Christmas.
He said the refinery commenced operations on December 20, 2023, as the first phase of work at the plant had been completed, adding that refined petroleum products would start flowing from the refinery after the Christmas break.
“This is to announce to Nigerians that in fulfillment of our pledge to complete phase one of the Port Harcourt Refinery by the end of 2023, and the subsequent streaming of phase two in 2024, we happily announce the mechanical completion of flare start-up on December 20, 2023.
“This heralds the commencement of the production of petroleum products after the Christmas break. We want to thank Nigerians for their patience and trust in the NNPC to deliver on our promise and mandate in the rehabilitation of our refineries,” he declared.
After the pronouncement, the refinery did not produce even a tablespoonful of petroleum product.
Following the failure of the refinery to deliver, the NNPCL came up with another spin in September 2024.
The company said the mechanical processes had been completed but the refinery had been unable to refine crude due to some untoward technical issues.
NNPCL’s executive vice president, downstream, Mr Adedapo Segun, stated that the refinery completed its mechanical processes, began distillation in August but it was yet to roll out petroleum products due to safety precautions and the high temperatures involved in the refinery’s processes.
He said facility, which was rehabilitated rather than built from the scratch, should not be considered a failure despite not being fully operational nine months after its mechanical completion.
“We gave our projections based on data available. The Port Harcourt refinery, a brown field refinery, achieved mechanical completion last December and by August, we fired up the burners, meaning the distillation process has started. So, the Port Harcourt refinery has started the distillation process, but yet to produce products to tank specification at the moment.
“When the distillation is started, the temperature is raised over time and rises to as high as 300 degrees centigrade. At this stage, if anything goes wrong, because at 300 degrees, a lot can go wrong, you have to bring it down; you can’t intervene. It could be that the flames or the burner are not at the level at which it should be, because maybe the burner is clogged.
“You don’t go in there and unclog it at 300 degrees centigrade; you bring it to cool down, clean it up, you put it back, you start heating it up again. We’ve done this four times since August at the Port Harcourt refinery, and each time a different thing comes up. We have to bring it down to fix it. I’m very confident now that we are at that point now where I’m very, very confident all is set.
“Dangote Refinery achieved mechanical completion in May last year, started producing diesel (AGO) in March this year, which is about 10 months after. Port Harcourt Refinery, a brown field refinery that we have rehabilitated, not a brand new refinery like Dangote Refinery achieved mechanical completion in December and this is September, and we’re hoping to start producing middle distillates. The same middle distillates that Dangote refinery started producing in March, April, we’re working towards producing it in September.
“This is still nine months. But there’s a need to be fair in our expectations. We can set the range of when we think it (production) will happen. But this is a process that has to go through. It’s a process you can’t say, because I’ve said, I’m going to, I’m going to start producing in December, in January, or in March and there’s an issue with the process, and you just say, No, I’m not going to go through the process of getting things right. I’m just going to jump in and get this, get things going again. Safety is very important, and that’s why I do all I can to keep the people on the plants, away from the pressures of someone working in an environment that is in excess of 300 degrees.
“We’re optimistic. We believe that Port Harcourt Refinery will start producing middle distillates to tank this month. And we’ve said that before. We still believe that we’ve gone through everything since August. We’ve started firing up the burners again after we brought it down last night to fix something. This was thankfully an easy fix, and we are going to start eating it up again. So that’s basically what’s going on with the Port Harcourt refinery.
“But I’m very optimistic that products from the refinery will go to the tank this month (September),” Segun said.
Not a drop of petroleum product was produced during the target month and Segun did not offer any other explanation thereafter.
