OPERATION OF THE PORT HARCOURT REFINERY IS RESUMED

On Wednesday, December 20, the Port Harcourt Refinery in Rivers State reopened for business.

The aggregate capacity of the refinery is 210,000 barrels per day.

A Naija News correspondent came across a viral video on X (formerly Twitter) that purportedly showed the refinery’s flare signaling the start of oil refining.

This outcome transpires months after the Federal Government pledged to guarantee the facility’s ability to produce refined goods by December 2023.

Recall that in August, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, the Minister of State for Petroleum (Oil), declared that the Port Harcourt refinery would open for business in December 2023.

The minister claims that the goal is to guarantee that the nation no longer imports fuel.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari, echoed Lokpobiri’s position by declaring that the nation will stop importing petroleum products by December 2024.

According to Kyari, the Warri refinery would start up in the first quarter of 2024, and the Kaduna refinery will start up by the end of the same year.

Data that was available indicated that the Nigerian government has spent N11.35 trillion ($25 billion) on repairing the three refineries in the nation over the previous ten years. In March 2021, the Federal Executive Council authorized a $1.5 billion plan to renovate the Port Harcourt Refinery.