The Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd, Mele Kyari has assured that the Port Harcourt Refinery will begin operation by August this year.
This is just as he said that with the several initiatives being implemented by the National oil company, Nigeria will become a net exporter of petroleum products by December this year.
Kyari said these during an interactive session with members of the joint committees of the National Assembly on Finance.
The meeting had in attendance, the Ministers of Finance, Mr Wale Edun; Budget and National Planning, Senator Atiku Bagudu; Minister of State Petroleum, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri; and the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr Yemi Cardoso.
In his presentation, Kyari informed the committee led by Senator Sani Musa (APC Niger East) that based on emerging indicators in the oil and gas sector, Nigeria will be a net exporter of petroleum by December this year.
The indicators, according to him, are the Port Harcourt refinery that will start production early next month, which will be followed by the one in Warri months after, and Kaduna refinery latest by December this year .
He added that in few months time, oil production level for the country will hit two million barrels per day as every measures have been put in place to achieve that target.
He said, “Mr. Chairman and members of the Joint Committee. Let me just give confirmation that NNPCL and the oil and gas industry is very critical in bringing a turnaround in our current economic situation, and we understand the importance of this. We are taking every step that is practical for us to achieve this..
“We have already seen growth in our oil and gas production because of certain actions that Mr. President personally took, and also the very mere truth that we have also declared a war on production activities, and this is yielding the required results.
“The combination of these two has now seen us restoring production in our country, and we believe that, as the Honorable Minister has said, we will soon hit the target of two million barrels oil production per day.
“I’m aware that there are several comments in the public space around refining business and domestic production, including production that will come from the commissioned Dangote refinery.
“Yes, this country, as we have said, will be a net exporter of petroleum products by the end of this year. We’re very optimistic that by December , this country will be a net exporter. That means a combination of production coming from us, and also from Dangote refinery and other smaller producing companies that we know are in line to do this.
“So, I can confirm to you, Mr. Chairman, that by the end of the year, this country will be a net exporter of petroleum products.
“Specific to NNPC refinery, we have spoken to a number of your committees, that it is impossible to have the Kaduna refinery come to operation before December, it will get to December. Both Warri and Kaduna but that of Portharcourt will commence production early August this year.”
THE WHISTLER had reported that following the mechanical completion of the Old Port Harcourt Refinery in December, last year, a total of one million barrels of crude oil has been supplied to the plant by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd as refining of petroleum products from the facility.
THE WHISTLER gathered that the one million barrels of crude oil were supplied to the refinery in two tranches with the latest coming in last Wednesday.
About 170 litres of refined petroleum products can be obtained from a barrel of crude oil. This implies that the one million barrel supplied by the NNPC to the Port Harcourt refinery can provide an estimated 170 million litres of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol and other refined products.
The Newspaper further reoorted that the importation of Liquefied Petroleum Gas, popularly called cooking gas, would reduce as the refinery starts pumping out refined products.
THE WHISTLER‘s investigations had also revealed that in preparation for commencement of refining of petroleum products, the license for the refinery had been issued by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority.
The Port Harcourt Refinery located in the oil-rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria has been operational since 1965. It is the oldest and the biggest of the three government-owned oil refining sites in the West African country.
The PHRC rehabilitation project, which costs about $1.5bn, is a national project that covers Engineering, Procurement, Construction, Installation, and commissioning phases.
The old PH Refinery comprises a Crude Distillation Unit (CDU), a Catalytic Reforming Unit (CRU) and a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) facility.
The products expected from the refinery include petrol, diesel, LPG, aviation and domestic kerosene, low pour fuel oil (LPFO), and heavy pour fuel oil (HPFO).
Investigations by THE WHISTLER had also revealed that since the mechanical completion of the Old Port Harcourt Refinery (OPHR) in December 2023, the NNPCL has
completed pre-commissioning of key process subsystems including purging, inerting, leak tests, loop checks, calibrations and motor solo runs.
The NNPCL, according to findings, had also ensured that the steaming out of critical sections of the plant had been completed as well as
completed the prestart-up safety review with the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority.