Port Harcourt refinery resumes production

…to refine 5m litres daily by month end

Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Dr. Joseph Dawha, yesterday confirmed that the phased turnaround maintenance, TAM, of the Port Harcourt Refinery has reached advanced stage, with the facility expected to commence production at the end of the month.

When completed, the refinery is expected to produce about five million litres of premium motor spirit, PMS (petrol) daily, a volume that would help reduce the current scarcity nationwide.

Dawha, who disclosed this to newsmen shortly after inspecting operations at NNPC mega stations in Abuja, assured that with about 1.1billion litres of petrol to cover 27 days, scarcity of the product would end by the weekend.

He also disclosed that the phased TAM for other refineries would be completed within 18 months’ period.

He clarified: “We are carrying out phased implementation of rehabilitation of the refineries; what that means is that we are taking the refineries unit by unit and carrying out turnaround maintenance.

“In other words, the maintenance is being carried out on the run and we started this a couple of months ago. Most of the refineries have advanced to a certain stage whereby they would be operating very soon.

“For example, the Port Harcourt Refinery which has reached an advanced stage will start receiving crude by the end of this month and they will start contributing to the availability of products in the country.

“What we did was to draw up a programme whereby people outside will not notice what is happening in the refineries but we are carrying out turnaround maintenance on the run. And it is simultaneously taking place in all the refineries.

“At the end of 18 months most of the refineries would have been rehabilitated to a certain level whereby they can actually process crude optimally to make contributions to the availability of products in the country.” He expressed satisfaction with the progress of work at the refineries.


He also restated government’s determination to revive the three refineries. He said: “We have not abandoned the refineries; there is a planned rehabilitation that is going on very well and we hope that at the end of the exercise the refineries would be fully back in operation and minimise some of the problems we are having in supply.”

He noted that as the supplier of last resort, the NNPC was the only organisation bringing petrol into the country, and would continue to do so until other marketers begin to import to supplement the corporation’s effort.

According to him, as at yesterday, the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company, PPMC, had PMS stock level of 1.1 billion litres, representing 27 days sufficiency, excluding volumes with firmed delivery laycans (dates) within the next couple of days.

The NNPC chief explained that with the level of stock, the corporation had intensified its distribution operation through vessels and trucking operations to ensure that PMS is available at inland depots and retail outlets nationwide.

In addition, he disclosed that the NNPC through its subsidiary, NNPC Retails Ltd, had also “embarked on massive PMS lifting to its mega and affiliate stations in Abuja and across the nation.

“In the last five days, we have brought into Abuja 428 trucks of PMS, averaging 85 trucks daily to address the PMS requirement in Abuja and its immediate environs,” he noted.

He urged consumers to stop panic buying, assuring that the NNPC/PPMC was committed to ending fuel queues in Abuja and across the states by the weekend in collaboration with the major marketers and other stakeholders.

“Evidence has begun to emerge in the last two days as most of our stations are wet and the severity of the queues has started to reduce,” he said. He said this is sequel to the Federal Government’s meeting with the oil marketers and other stakeholders on June 5.

“We have taken steps, as supplier of last resort, to improve availability of PMS in the country and ensure its effective distribution nationwide.

The supply and distribution efforts must be sustained with the support and cooperation of our stakeholders in the downstream and government agencies, such as police, army, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corp, NSCDC,” he added. He warned against panic buying, hoarding or patronising black market operators.

He also urged major and independent marketers, the Depot and Petroleum Marketers Association, DAPPMA, and other stakeholders to deliver their PMS allocation at regulated pump price.

In his remarks, the Managing Director of PPMC, Haruna Momoh, explained that with an estimated daily consumption of 40 million litres, NNPC was expected to supply 50 per cent of market needs while other marketers are to make up for the balance.

He explained that with the other marketers not participating in product importation, the challenge of distribution had become enormous.

“Even if we have 1.1billion litres in the coastal depots, the challenge is now how efficiently and effectively and seamlessly we can distribute what we have,” he said.

Source: National Mirror