P/Harcourt Refinery will resume production by December – FG

The Federal Government 0n Wednesday said Port Harcourt Refineries would become functional by December this year.

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, said this while fielding questions from State House reporters after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

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Asked when the rehabilitation of the refineries would be completed, Sylva said: “The rehabilitation of the refineries is ongoing. As we said earlier, the old refinery in Port Harcourt, which is about 60,000 barrels per day capacity, will be functional by December and, of course, we still have some time in the contracting time to conclude the rest of the Port Harcourt Refineries.

“Works in the Kaduna and Warri refineries are also progressing very well. We will soon be embarking on an inspection visit and some of you journalists will be able to go with us to ascertain for yourselves what the extent of work is.”

The minister said the council approved the sum of N2.044 billion for the construction of drainage, internal road and facilities at the Gas Hub in Bayelsa State.

While reacting to a question on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), Sylva said: “On the CNG development, it’s very much in progress. That is part of the promises we made, part of the things we want to put in place before the removal of subsidy. Subsidy has still not been removed because some of these conditions that were agreed upon have not been met and we’re definitely working assiduously to ensure that all the facilities are in place, the pumping stations and the conversion kits.

“I can assure you that work is going on very much in that regard. We may not be in a position to announce exactly what we are doing now or where we are, but I can assure you that work is very much ongoing.”