Nigeria’s Portharcourt Refining Company has resumed production on Wednesday after it was shut down seven months ago.
The shutdown was to enable the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, carry out a rehabilitation work.
The resumption of refinery was confirmed by the Special Assistant to the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Amaka Okafor, who said the Minister would visit the site on Thursday in order to commence production.
The $1.5 billion rehabilitation project of the refinery was launched by former President Muhammadu Buhari administration in 2019, to restore the refinery to its nameplate capacity of 210,000 barrels per day (bpd).
Lokpobiri and the Group Chief Executive Officer of the NNPC Limited, Mele Kyari, in August, assured Nigerians that the refinery would be operational by December 2023.
Kyari also during the budget defence session on December 9, told Nigerian lawmakers that by the end of December 2023, the Port Harcourt refinery would commence operations.
He further said that in early 2024, the Warri refinery would begin operation and that by the end of 2024, the Kaduna refinery was expected to also commence operation.
Kyari had been quoted as saying, “I can confirm to you that by the end of December this year, we will start the Port Harcourt refinery; early in the first quarter of 2024, we will start the Warri refinery, and by the end of 2024, Kaduna refinery will come into operation.”
