The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, has said the rehabilitation work for the Port Harcourt refinery will be completed by April 2023 to start refining 60,000 barrels of crude daily.
The $1.5 billion rehabilitation contract for the Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC) in Rivers State was awarded to Maire Tecnimont SpA, an Italian firm last year.
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PHRC operates two refineries which are the old refinery with a nameplate capacity of 60,000 barrels per stream day (bpsd) and new refinery with an installed capacity of 150,000 bpsd making it 210,000bpsd crude processing capacity.
The Managing Director, Ahmed Dikko, had last year said the refinery will be ready by September 2023. However, briefing pressmen on Tuesday, during an inspection of the refinery, Sylva said, “This project kicked off second quarter last year and where they are now is quite impressive. It is on schedule.
“The commitment is to deliver 60,000 barrels per day from this refinery by the first quarter of next year, and of course, we are quite happy.”
Other members of the inspection team include the Board of Directors of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd (NNPCL) led by the Chairman, Sen. Margaret Okadigbo.
