Members of the Independent Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) have expressed hope that the Port Harcourt refinery will commence operations soon.
The marketers visited the refinery on Wednesday, April 17, 2024, where staff at the facility said that mechanical work had been completed at the facility.
This comes as the Dangote refinery began selling diesel to marketers recently.
Oil marketers have visited the Port Harcourt Refinery Company in Rivers State and expressed hope that the facility may start releasing refined petroleum products this month.
The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) members said the facility’s rehabilitation has been mainly completed.
The IPMAN members said the plant will be ready this month, as earlier speculated by Mele Kyari, the Group CEO of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).
On March 15, 2024, the NNPCL boss said the refinery would commence operations in two weeks. NNPCL official said on Wednesday, April 17, 2024, that the facility's critical safety and regulatory compliance tests were ongoing.
Punch reports that marketers said the plant would begin releasing products very soon, as per their visit to the facility and information from staff at the refinery. Kyari had revealed at a hearing that mechanical works had been completed on the refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna, stating that the Kaduna refinery would commence operations in December.
He said: “We are serving this country with honour and dignity. We will ensure that our promises to rehabilitate these refineries are fulfilled. Refinery to produce 10 million litres of petrol daily.
The NNPCL boss stated that the plant's first phase had been completed and would start refining 60,000 barrels of crude oil after the Christmas period last year. A barrel of crude oil can process about 170 litres of refined petroleum products, implying that the 60,000 barrels of crude oil from the refinery can provide about 10.2 million litres of petrol and other refined products. The state-owned oil company stated the facility's second phase would be completed in Q2 2024, leading to the refining of 150,000 crude by the plant.