5 things to know about Port Harcourt Refinery

The Federal Government, on Thursday, confirmed the resumption of operations at the Port Harcourt Refining and Petrochemical Company in Rivers State.

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, led a team from the Refinery Steering Committee to inspect the facility.

During the visit, he congratulated the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and Nigerians.

Here are a few things to know about the refinery:

• Profile

The Port Harcourt Refinery, situated in Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta region, has been in operation since 1965. The Alesa Eleme refinery complex is situated in Rivers State, Nigeria, approximately 25 kilometres east of Port Harcourt.

In March 2021, the Nigerian government approved a GBP 1.08 billion ($1.5 billion) budget for the renovation and modernisation of the refinery complex.

In the same month, the refinery’s primary contract for modernisation was also granted.

Each of the four turbo generators in the refinery complex can generate 14 MW of electricity per hour, and each of the four boilers can produce 120 t of steam per hour.

• Production Capacity and Output

The Port Harcourt Refineries consisted of two units: the new facility produced 150,000 barrels per day (bpd) and the old plant 60,000 bpd, for a total of 210,000 bpd.

• Maintenance challenges

The government hired Maire Tecnimont of Italy to oversee the refinery complex’s scoping, while oil firm Eni was named as the technical consultant. The refinery was closed in March 2019 for the first phase of repairs.

• Repairs

NNPC Limited announced the commencement of repairs following the approval of $1.5bn by the Federal Executive Council in 2021.

• Performance

Over time, the refinery’s performance fell short of expectations, leading to years of domestic petroleum product imports to make up for the production shortfall.