The Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has announced that three of its refineries located in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Warri in Delta State, and Kaduna State will soon begin operations.
The Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of the NNPC, Malam Mele Kyari revealed that the Port Harcourt refinery would be operational before the end of 2023, while the Warri and Kaduna refineries would begin production in 2024.
Kyari made the announcement during an interview he granted on Monday while leading his management team on a courtesy visit to the Abuja headquarters of Trust TV.
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He said:
“Our plan is to bring it (Port Harcourt refinery) on stream this month but unfortunately, we have some slippage because of global supply chain issues that we had.
“We believe that this plant will come on stream before the end of this year. We are very sure of that.
“The Port Harcourt refinery has a combination of 210,000 barrels per day so that means it is a third of the Dangote refinery.”
NNPC has a total refining capacity of four hundred and forty-five thousand barrels across four refineries in three locations, according to Kyari.
He revealed that the refineries underwent rehabilitation, which was financed through borrowing rather than public funds.
The GCEO added that the repayment of the borrowed funds was tied to the refineries’ performance.
He said:
“We are also borrowing to fix the Warri and Kaduna refineries. Kaduna will kick up, it is a 36 months project but what happens in the rehabilitation is that you do them stage by stage.
“We will replicate the same thing in the Warri refinery and the contractor, Daewoo is on-site working, mobilized to site, equipment being delivered to site and we believe also that within that 36-month cycle, it will also complete the rehabilitation.
“Port Harcourt will start producing fuel this year and by the first quarter of next year, Kaduna will start producing fuel.”