The second phase rehabilitation of Port Harcourt refinery in Nigeria is set to commence in the first quarter of next year. Mallam Mele Kyari, the Group Managing Director at the Nigerian National Petroleum Commission (NNPC) has disclosed the report and said that the contract for the implementation of the works will be awarded soon.
“I am happy to announce that the funding challenge which had stalled the second phase of the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt Refinery has been resolved and works will commence soon. NNPC’s vision of revamping the pipelines is in tandem with the Refineries Rehabilitation Project that aims to ensure that four refineries are up and running in the course of the next three years,” said Mallam.
Read:Final investment decision made for Cabinda Refinery project in Angola
Port Harcout
Port Harcourt was commissioned in 1965 to process 60,000 barrels of oil per stream day (bpsd). The second plant commissioned in 1989, which has a capacity of 150,000 bpsd. Both refineries have a combined capacity of 210,000 barrels per stream day making it the biggest oil refining company in Nigeria. They both had the last Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) in 2000. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between Italian oil giant, ENI and NNPC which committed to the refurbishment of the both Port Harcourt Refineries
Rehabilitation works will be done be in two phases, with both the ENI and the original participating in the process. At the end of the first phase, the Port Harcourt refinery is projected to reach 60% capacity utilization, increasing to a minimum of 90%.
Kyari also disclosed that the company is in the process of strengthening the products distribution system by revamping its pipeline network through a Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) model whose process is already at an advanced stage. The GMD said that much had been put in place to boost oil exploration and production with an aim of raising national reserves to 40 billion barrels and daily production to 3 million.
“A number of disputes that hampered production activities such as the one involving Shell and Belema Oil that shut in over 30,000 barrels per day production in OML 25 have been resolved and we, therefore, expect an increase in production to meet the 3m barrels per day production target,” said Kyari.
