NNPC Hands Over Port Harcourt Refinery for Rehabilitation

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) yesterday formally handed over the Port Harcourt refinery, Rivers State, to an Italian Firm, Tecnicmont SPA for an overhaul expected to cost $1.5 billion.

With the formalities now over, the corporation stated that the contractors can fully mobilise to the site to start work on the refinery which began operations in 1989 and has the capacity to refine 210,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

The Federal Executive Council (FEC), in March, had approved the sum for the modernisation of the oil refinery, which is expected to be completed in three phases.

The first phase is scheduled to be rounded off within 18 months, taking the refinery to 90 per cent production capacity. The second and final phases are to be carried out within 24 months and 44 months respectively.

Nigeria, Africa’s top oil exporter, has made producing its own fuels a priority for years but efforts to revamp its refineries have failed, leaving it entirely reliant on imports and now struggling to balance a promise to end costly fuel subsidy with public resistance to higher pump price of petrol.

Funding for the project will come from the state oil company’s cash flow, budget provisions and Afreximbank, the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mr Timipre Sylva, had stated in March.