By Ogaga Ariemu
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited said it has fulfilled its pledge to achieve the mechanical completion of rehabilitation work on the Area 5 Plant of the Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC).
Olufemi Soneye, Chief Corporate Communications Officer of NNPCL, disclosed this in a statement on Thursday in Abuja, noting that rehabilitation work has been ongoing at the refinery for over two years.
This came as the company had pledged to complete Phase One of the project (mechanical completion and flare start-up) of Old Port Harcourt Refinery (Area 5) by December.
Speaking during an inspection tour of the rehabilitation project, which also coincided with the 15th Refineries’ Rehabilitation Steering Committee Meeting, the Group Chief Executive Officer, NNPC Ltd, Mele Kyari, said that 84.4 per cent of Area 5 Plant, a key component of the refinery, and 77.4 per cent of the entire rehabilitation project have been completed as of December 15, 2023.
“In our quest to ensure that this refinery is re-streamed to continue to deliver value to Nigerians, we made a promise that we will reach a mechanical completion of Phase One of the rehabilitation project by the end of December and get the other plants running in 2024. Today, we have kept those commitments,” Kyari stated.
Kyari commended NNPCL’s staff and the EPCIC contractors for excellently ensuring that the refinery achieved that significant milestone.
On his part, the chairman of the NNPCL Board, Chief Pius Akinyelure, described the milestone as “historic,” stressing that the board was proud of the staff and management of the refinery.
“We are just starting. We want to be at the highest production level so that we will keep the prices of petroleum in the country stable to comfort our people and generate more revenue for our country,” Akinyelure noted.
Also speaking, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, said the milestone is another landmark of the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu.
He thanked Nigerians for their patience and trust in the company’s ability to deliver on this huge project.
In his address, the Minister of State for Petroleum (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo, said re-streaming the refinery is a good omen for the nation’s Liquefied Petroleum Gas, LPG, industry, as LPG, also known as cooking gas, is a major by-product of the refinery.
