1 week Ago By Guardian Nigeria
A recent fact-finding visit by labour leaders has dispelled the uncertainties surrounding the operational status of the newly revived old Port Harcourt Refinery, with a capacity of 60,000 barrels per day. The unions have confirmed that the refinery is running efficiently and have called on the Federal Government to ensure that it remains operational and does not fall into disuse again. OBINNA NWAOKU reports.
If there was any significant take-away from the facility tour of the Port Harcourt refinery complex by the leadership of the country’s major labour unions, it is the crushing, like a pack of cards, the rumours that the refinery was not operating after the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited reopened it. The Nigeria Labour Congress, Trade Union Congress, Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, and Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers had during the week visited the refinery amid the controversy surrounding its full operability. The Port Harcourt Refinery in Eleme comprises two facilities – the old refinery, with a 60,000-barrel-per-day capacity, and the new refinery, capable of refining 150,000 barrels per day.
The old refinery, operational since 1965, is Nigeria’s first refinery and had remained idle since 1990 when the newer unit became the primary production hub. The refinery has a unique configuration where one barrel of crude oil yields a maximum of 23–24 per cent gasoline. After over 30 years of dormancy, the old Port Harcourt refinery resumed operations, on Tuesday, November 26, 2024.
This became possible following the Federal Government’s approval, in 2021, of $1.5 billion for the comprehensive rehabilitation of the refinery and the sound leadership of the NNPCL’s Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari. By December 2023, the NNPC had completed the mechanical phase of the refinery’s turnaround maintenance and by November this year, returned it to active operations.
The old refinery currently produces straight-run gasoline (Naphtha) blended into 1.4 million litres of PMS daily; 900,000 litres of kerosene; 1.5 million litres of Automotive Gas Oil (diesel); 2.
1 million litres of Low Pour Fuel Oil (LPFO), and additional volumes of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), also known as cooking gas..
