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Port Harcourt refinery misses 7th production rollout deadline

It is another hope dashed as the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited failed on its promises to begin fuel production at the 210,000 barrels per day Port Harcourt refinery in Rivers State after about six postponements as of August 2024.

The Chief Financial Officer of the NNPCL, Umar Ajiya, had, after the failure of the early August promise, said the refinery will commence operations in September 2024, as promises early made to Nigerians by the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources and NNPCL about the refinery have remained elusive.

Ajiya, while speaking to journalists in August, had said petroleum products would be ready for testing before being supplied to the domestic market in September, but as September ended days ago, neither NNPCL nor the ministry did not give an update about the rollout promise.

All efforts by the media since last week for an update about the refinery to the Chief Corporate Communications Officer of the oil firm, Olufemi Soneye, met with a deafening silence as he did not reply to enquiries sent to him on September 22 and 30, 2024.

Interestingly, the contractor overseeing the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt refinery, Maire Tecnimont SpA, through a law firm, Olajide Oyewole LLP, responded to a letter from a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, who had inquired about the completion timeline for the refinery’s rehabilitation.

In their response to Chief Falana’s request, the law firm stated that its client received his letters dated September 17 and 24, regarding the contract with the NNPC and is considering the inquiries, saying, “Our client is considering your letters and they intend to get back to you on or before 2 October 2024.”

Recall that since December 2023, NNPC, that is in charge of all the government refineries, has given Nigerians different dates, assuring them that the refinery would begin the sale of refined products soon.

In July, the Group Chief Executive Officer of the NNPC, Mele Kyari, stated categorically that the refinery would come into operation in early August.

The same Kyari said in 2019 that the NNPC would deliver all the country’s four refineries before the end of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.

While appearing before the Senate in July this year, Kyari boasted, “I can confirm to you, Mr. Chairman, that by the end of the year, this country will be a net exporter of petroleum products.

“Specific to NNPC refineries, we have spoken to a number of your committees, and it is impossible to have the Kaduna refinery come into operation before December; it will get to December, both Warri and Kaduna, but that of Port Harcourt will commence production early August this year.”

However, the promise was not fulfilled in August, which was the sixth postponement. Though the NNPC said it was on course and that the refinery has yet to commence operations.

Also recall that the refinery was said to have reached what the NNPC called mechanical completion of rehabilitation work in December. It stated that the facility would start refining 60,000 barrels of crude oil daily after last year’s Christmas break.

Later in January, Kyari said the refinery was being tested and would be ready by the end of January.

During the second month of the year, the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited completed the supply of 475,000 barrels of crude oil to the facility, raising the expectations of marketers that production was set to commence.

This came a few weeks after the NNPC said in January that it was seeking to engage reputable and credible operations and maintenance companies to run the refinery.

In mid-March, Kyari said the Port Harcourt refinery would commence operations in two weeks, April.

“We are serving this country with honour and dignity. And we will make sure that the promises we make on the rehabilitation of these refineries will take place,” Kyari stated after he appeared before the Senate Ad-hoc Committee investigating the various turnaround maintenance projects of the country’s refineries.

As the April deadline elapsed, independent petroleum marketers said that the facility would begin production by the end of July.

Commenting on this, NNPC’s Chief Corporate Communications Officer, Soneye, said regulatory approvals from international bodies were the only impediment stalling the operational commencement of the refinery.

Some Nigerians have expressed disappointment that the nation’s refineries have remained moribund for years. And the country has since depended on imported fuel due to a lack of refining capacity, spending up to N2 trillion monthly.

The President of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, said $4 billion had been spent by the Federal Government in an attempt to revive the nation’s refineries, situated in Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta region. They have been in operation since 1965 but became moribund for decades.

In March 2021, the Nigerian government acquired a $1.5 billion loan for the renovation and modernization of the refinery, a move that was criticized by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who advocated the sale of all government refineries.

While reacting to the plan to hand the refinery over to private managers, Atiku tackled former President Muhammadu Buhari and the incumbent President Bola Tinubu for failing to heed his advice that the refinery and others owned by the government should be sold to private individuals.

Meanwhile, Nigerians are hopeful that the refinery will begin operations so that the country can stop fuel importation and witness a crash in the pump prices of gasoline.

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