KEY POINTS
- Currently, the Port Harcourt Refinery is running at 70 percent capacity.
- The facility remains operational but ongoing upgrades are underway to modernize and restore the facility to full operation.
- Also, a second 150,000bpd plant is being actively refurbished and will start operations at some future date.
Currently, Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC) 60,000 barrels per day (bpd) refinery is operating at 70 percent installed capacity and will soon increase that capacity, according to Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser on Information and Strategy to President Bola Tinubu.
This was the assertion of Onanuga while on a fact finding mission to the PHRC complex in Rivers State on Wednesday. Speculation about the operations and supply of crude oil to the two plants, 60,000bpd and 150,000bpd refineries, at the facility, had been rife.
Contrary to claims that the refinery lacks crude to refine, Onanuga said the refinery is being supplied regular crude, and, “products from diesel, kerosene, liquefied petroleum gas and petrol are being produced and processed.”
Second plant progress and upgrades
They also saw parts of the facility’s 300km pipeline network being upgraded or replaced during the visit. The revamp described by Onanuga as a transformation which takes the refinery up to date.
The team also toured the 150,000bpd facility co located with the plant, where staff were busily replacing old parts. In an operational update yesterday, Onanuga provided no timeline for the completion of the second plant and said it would soon be operational.
“It was a state-of-the-art facility until it was all decommissioned and mothballed in the later stages of the Civil War. The recent overhaul brought it back to life,’ he said, dismissing rumours and doubts about the refinery’s progress.”
In November, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) stated that the refinery has been running at 60 percent capacity, and is working to eventually work it up to capacity.
