The President of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), Festus Osifo, says the old Port Harcourt Refinery has been rehabilitated to about 90 per cent and can be brought back into operation within one week, if the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) approves its restart.
Gatekeepers News reports that Osifo made the disclosure on Tuesday while speaking on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief.
According to him, the refinery is technically ready, but profitability concerns remain the key factor guiding NNPCL’s decision.
“As of today, you can start the old Port Harcourt refinery, and it will function. You can put it on today, and it will function. However, NNPCL as a company is there to make a profit. So, if they want to start it today, within the next one week, they can bring it back to life,” he said.
Profitability Still a Concern
Osifo explained that despite the extensive rehabilitation, the refinery could still operate at a loss because of the high cost of crude oil compared to the value of the refined products.
“It has been rehabilitated up to about 90 per cent. But the challenge is that if you feed crude oil worth, say, five million dollars into the old Port Harcourt refinery, what you are likely to get at the other end when you sell the petroleum products may be about 4.5 million dollars,” he said.
“So, you put in five million dollars as input and get 4.5 million dollars as output.”
‘Investment Was Not a Waste’
Osifo stressed that the funds spent on rehabilitating the refinery were not wasted, noting that major equipment had been replaced.
“The money that was thrown into the Port Harcourt refinery is not a loss. If you look at the old Port Harcourt refinery, almost all the compressors were changed, the control rooms were changed, and the panels were all changed. The contractors did not take them away,” he said.
He added that the facility is now far more valuable than before the rehabilitation.
“In fact, if you value the refinery today, it will be much more valuable than the state it was in before the rehabilitation,” Osifo said.
The Port Harcourt Refining Company was reopened in November 2024 as part of the rehabilitation programme but was shut down again in May 2025 due to operational challenges. The facility remains inactive.
