NNPCL Completes Rehabilitation of Port Harcourt Refining Company

The federal government alongside the NNPCL recently announced the completion of the rehabilitation work on the Area-5 Plant of the Port Harcourt Refining Company in Rivers State.

The facility is expected to resume production after the Christmas break. The refinery is said to refine 60,000 barrels of crude oil after the plant's first phase has been completed.

A barrel of crude oil is said to produce over 170 liters of refined petroleum products, so that means the 60,000bpd expected from the Area-5 Plant of the Port Harcourt Refining Company in Rivers State would produce roughly 10.2 million liters of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) popularly known as petrol or fuel alongside other refined products.

The refinery's management, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), announced that the refinery rehabilitation's second phase would be completed in Q4 2024 and would total the production to 150,000 bpd by the refinery in Rivers State.

This came after the FG declared that the importation of liquefied petroleum gas, popularly called cooking gas, would reduce after the Christmas break as the refinery started pumping out refined products.

The work for the recent completion of the first phase was said to have started two years back, of which the NNPCL said that its completion would be by December 31, 2023.

Talking more about the phase completion of the Rivers refinery, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil) and Senator Heineken Lokpobiri dropped some comments on the first rehabilitation phase, which ended on December 20, 2023.

Senator Heineken Lokpobiri said, 

• Today's meeting coincides with the commencement of operations at the Port Harcourt refinery. 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 to rehabilitate our refineries.

Senator Lokpobiri also stated that, with the completion of the first phase of the Rivers State refinery, other NNPC refineries in Kaduna and Warri would follow suit.

He added, 

• The mechanical part of the plant is completed, and this is the beginning of not just the Port Harcourt refinery phases one and two but the one for Warri and then the one in Kaduna so that we will be able to benefit from this massive investment that the country has made.

Also speaking on the milestone achieved, Ekperikpe Ekpo, Minister of State Petroleum Resources, said that the refinery would produce cooking gas, which he believes would cushion the importation of the commodity.

In his remark, he said,

• In August, when we came here, we were told that this plant would come on stream by December, and today, we have witnessed that. So I’m impressed.

• And it is good news equally to LPG (cooking gas) users that as the refinery begins after Christmas, we will have a sufficient supply of LPG, which will automatically reduce the imports at that level. So it is something to celebrate.

• With the coming up of phase one, others will follow as well because the NNPC has fulfilled the first assignment, and I believe others will be completed on schedule.

When asked about the quantity of cooking gas expected from the refinery, the Minister did not state it but urged Nigerians to believe in the hope agenda the Tinubu-led administration is bringing.

Ibrahim Onoja, the managing director of Port Harcourt Refining Company Limited, stated that the rehabilitation is expected to keep the company running for decades.

He said, 

• You see this new plant that will last Nigeria for decades. We can beat our chests and say we’ve come over 50 years, and we’ll go another 50 years.

• This will give value to Nigeria, create jobs, and provide feedstock for industries, revenue, foreign exchange, energy security, and more. Phase one of this refinery is 60,000 barrels per day; the other is 150,000 barrels per day. So we have a complementary 210,000 bpd refinery.

The rehabilitation of the PHRC project costs over $1.5 billion, and it is said to be an EPIC project that covers the engineering, procurement, construction, installation, and commissioning phases.

It was also stated that the milestone was achieved under a Health, Safety, and Environment record, which stood at over 9.5 million person-hours with zero loss of time injury.

Nigeria’s refineries in Port Harcourt, Kaduna, and Warri have been dormant for decades, as the Federal Government has spent several billions of naira to revamp the facilities.

The nation has been running on some losses ever since the country's refinery stations stopped operating for years. However, with the rehabilitation step, which has cost the government billions of naira, Nigeria is expected to experience some shift as its dependence on the importation of petroleum products will be reduced. 

Also, the Dangote refinery has begun operating, and this will assist the government in focusing on other aspects rather than spending billions on importing fuel. The NNPCL also announced that it had acquired a 20% stake in the Dangote refinery.