Timipre Sylva, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, says the Old Port Harcourt Refinery currently undergoing rehabilitation, will become functional by the end of this year.
Gatekeepers News reports that Sylva said this at a briefing with Journalists after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting on Wednesday.
Sylva, gave an update on the state of the ongoing repairs at the country’s refineries stating that the 60,000 barrels-per-day capacity refinery would be functional by December, 2022.
In 2021, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited commenced the rehabilitation of the refinery, which is the biggest refinery in the country, with an approved sum of $1.5 billion for the project.
He added that works are also progressing on the Warri and Kaduna refineries.
“The rehabilitation of the refineries is ongoing. As we said earlier, the old refinery in Port Harcourt, which is about 60,000 barrels per day capacity, will be functional by December and, of course, we still have some time in the contracting time to conclude the rest of the Port Harcourt refineries,” the minister said.
“Works in the Kaduna and Warri refineries are also progressing very well. We will soon be embarking on an inspection visit and some of you journalists will be will be able to go with us to ascertain for yourselves what the extent of work is.”
Meanwhile, Sylva also said that Nigeria’s Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) development programme was still ongoing, and that it must be achieved before the removal of petrol subsidy.
“On the CNG development, it’s very much in progress. That is part of the promises we made, part of the things we want to put in place before the removal of subsidy.”
“Subsidy has still not been removed because some of these conditions that were agreed upon have not been met and we’re definitely working assiduously to ensure that all the facilities are in place, the pumping stations and the conversion kits,” he said.
“I can assure you that work is going on very much in that regard. We may not be in a position to announce exactly what we are doing now or where we are, but I can assure you that work is very much ongoing.”
