July Restart for Port Harcourt Refinery, IPMAN Confirms

The Port Harcourt refinery is scheduled to start up in July says IPMAN

 After multiple delays, the long-awaited 210,000-barrel-per-day Port Harcourt refinery is now slated to come online by the end of July, marking a significant milestone in Nigeria's oil refining capacity.

The National Public Relations Officer of the Independent Marketers Association of Nigeria, (IPMAN), Chief Ukadike Chinedu, announced the revised start date on Monday. Reducing the price of petroleum goods and guaranteeing an adequate supply were the benefits he mentioned that this development would bring about.

The largest crude refinery in Port Harcourt declared its mechanical completion and flare start-off in December 2023, according to Heineken Lokpobiri, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources.

The Port Harcourt refinery complex consists of two units: the current plant, which can process up to 150,000 barrels per day (bpd), and the older plant, which can refine up to 60,000 barrels per day.

In March 2019, the refinery ceased operations for the initial phase of repairs following the government's appointment of oil firm Eni and Italy's Maire Tecnimont as technical advisers to oversee the refinery complex assessments.

It was discovered in March that the Port Harcourt refinery would start up in roughly two weeks, according to Mele Kyari, the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, or NNPCL.

This information was made public by the NNPCL CEO following his appearance before the Senate ad hoc committee looking into the various turnaround maintenance programs of the nation's refineries.

He said, “We did a mechanical completion of the refinery that was what we said in December. We now have crude oil already stocked in the refinery. We are doing regulatory compliance tests that must happen in every refinery before you start it, and I assure you that this Port Harcourt refinery will start in two weeks.”

Two months after he made the guarantee, though, the machinery was still not operating.

Ukadike emphasized that every effort would be made to fulfill the July target and said that the work completed reflected a complete turnaround, not merely rehabilitation.

The representative for IPMAN stated, “The turnaround on maintenance is very massive and the job is being done day and night. All hands are on deck to make sure that they meet that target. By ending of July the refinery should be ready.”

When reminded of several promises by the government to kick start the project, Ukadike replied, “Yes, there have been delays but they didn't tell us any reason for the delay of the last deadline given in April.

“They are not facing any challenges at all; I can say the refinery is 99 percent ready.

“What we want is competition. I am very sure that with the two refineries, the price of petrol will be reduced. Dangote is very good. We need that competition for the benefit of the nation.”

The Dangote Petroleum Refinery has proposed to start producing gasoline by the end of June, and this timeframe aligns with their request.

Speaking at the Africa CEO Forum annual summit in Kigali, Aliko Dangote, the chairman of the Dangote Group, gave Nigerians the assurance that, as per the Dangote Refinery's planned operations, the country would no longer require the importation of gasoline as early as next month.

He claims that the refinery can supply West Africa's aviation fuel requirements in addition to its demands for gasoline and diesel.

Nigeria presently spends over N520 billion a month on the importation of gasoline, with an average monthly consumption of 1 billion gallons. This implies that the annual import bill might be reduced by the government by about N6.2 trillion.