PH refinery gets 450,000 barrels crude, resumes operations April

The Port Harcourt refinery is scheduled to start operations in approximately two weeks, according to Mele Kyari, the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.

Kyari stated that the refineries in Kaduna, Warri, and Port Harcourt have finished their mechanical work, and that the refinery in Kaduna will start up in December.

Following his appearance before the Senate Ad-hoc Committee looking into the various Turn Around Maintenance projects of the nation’s refineries, Kyari disclosed this in a press briefing.

“We are serving this country with honour and dignity,” he declared. Furthermore, we’ll see to it that the commitments we make regarding the restoration of these refineries are kept.

“As we stated in December, we completed the refinery mechanically. We now have crude oil already stocked in the refinery. We are doing regulatory compliance test that must happen in every refinery before you start it, and I assure you that this Port Harcourt refinery will start in the next two weeks.

“Completing the mechanical work means that you are done with the rehabilitation work, now you have to test to see how it works. Of course, we have also completed the mechanical work on the Warri refinery. It is also undergoing regulatory compliance; processes that we are doing with our regulator, and this will soon be completed and it will be ready.

“Kaduna refinery will be ready by December. We have not reached that stage in Kaduna, but we promise Kaduna will be delivered by December.”

The NNPC GMD also told the Senate that over 450, 000 barrels of oil had been stocked into the Port Harcourt refinery.

He said, “All crude lines are active and have actually delivered over 450,000 barrels into Port Harcourt refinery.

“We are confident of the integrity of it. Yes, there may be security issues, but also government is responding to the situation.”

Meanwhile, the Senate disowned the alleged report of fraud in the Turn Around Maintenance of the nation’s refineries currently being undertaken by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited.

The Chairman of the Senate ad-hoc panel, Senator Ifeanyi Ubah, told his colleagues that he already had some documents on the TAM and that no fraudulent practice had been discovered in the exercise.

Ubah said the country would want to know that progress is being made on the rehabilitation of the refineries

He said, “I have seen some documents indicating that something is being done and there is nothing to suggest that there is a foul play in the exercise.”

He said members of the committee would visit all the refineries to ascertain the progress of work there so that a comprehensive report would be presented to the Senate in plenary soonest.

A member of the ad-hoc committee, Senator Mpigi Barnada, urged the NNPCL management to pay attention to the security challenges in the oil-rich region.

Specifically, he said it would not augur well if the refineries are fixed and insecurity prevented crude from getting there.