With the Port Harcourt Refining Company, PHRC, Limited starting operations on Wednesday, December 20, 2023, and having a combined capacity of 210,000 barrels per day, it is anticipated that the fuel price will drop from N617 per liter.
A now-viral video showed the refinery’s flare signaling the start of oil refining.
Months have passed since August, when Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, the Minister of State for Petroleum (Oil), declared that the Port Harcourt refinery will start operations in December 2023.
As per the Minister, the aim is to guarantee that the nation ceases to import fuel.
In support of Lokpobiri’s position, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) announced that it will stop importing petroleum products into the nation by December 2024.
The Group Chief Executive Officer of the NNPCL, Mele Kyari, said, “I can confirm to you that by the end of December this year, we will start the Port Harcourt refinery; early in the first quarter of 2024, we will start the Warri refinery, and by the end of 2024, Kaduna refinery will come into operation.
The Federal Executive Council authorized $1.5 billion in March 2021 for the Port Harcourt Refinery’s renovation.
As a result, data indicated that the three refineries in Nigeria have required N11.35 trillion ($25 billion) in repairs over the last 10 years by the Nigerian government.
Ahead of the anticipated restart of operations at the Port Harcourt Refinery in Rivers State in January, stakeholders in the downstream petroleum sub-sector, drawn from the Natural Oil and Gas Suppliers Association of Nigeria (NOGASA) and the Petroleum Products Retail Outlet Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN), have guaranteed that the current energy sector crisis will soon come to an end.
Speaking yesterday at the Ibom Icon Hotel in Uyo, the state capital, following the inauguration of the Akwa Ibom State chapters of the two industry regulatory bodies, Mr. Kenneth Korie, national president and chairman of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of NOGASA, and Dr. Billy Harry, representing PETROAN, expressed their unwavering certainty that the prices of petroleum products would plummet when the refineries start operating again in January.
Korie, who attributes the present surge in product costs to importation, claimed that the only surefire method to bring down product prices is to modernize and renovate the refineries in Port Harcourt, Kaduna, and Warri, on which he stated construction had moved to an advanced degree.
He said, “Yes, of course there is hope. The GMD NNPC has given assurance concerning that before the National Assembly. In all my talks, I have been hammering on the Port Harcourt Refinery to come on steam.
“I’m 100 percent sure that there will be a serious reduction in the price of petroleum products as soon as our four refineries, including the Dangote Refinery, come up. But we should not expect the price to come down like it was before, because of the high exchange rate, but it will be a bit lower than what it is now.”
He expressed that “what we are doing today is unique, it’s epic and it’s the first in the annals of the history of the downstream sector. We are going to make it unique throughout the country because together we can make sure that the importation of petroleum products is reduced to the barest minimum.”
“Together we can make sure that our refineries are working again, together we can get back to the time when petroleum products are sold at what the common man could afford. They say in Nigeria, anything that goes up will not come down again, but I can tell you with the synergy that is coming from retail outlet owners and the suppliers’ association of Nigeria, this is going to be something that is going to change the landscape of the economy and the economic activities of the downstream, so take this meeting as history,” he assured.
