NNPC hands over Port Harcourt refinery to contractor for repair

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has handed over the Port Harcourt Refineries Companies to the contractor, Tecnimont SPA, for rehabilitation.

The Group Managing Director, Malam Mele Kyari, who disclosed this at a meeting on Thursday to mark the rehabilitation of refinery, said, “We shall from time to time visit to see the progress of work outside, and sooner than later we shall come on to commission the work.”

Kyari, who was represented by the Chief Financial Officer, Mr Umar Ajiya, added, “We will support all that is necessary to be done to expedite the rehabilitation, we are ready to support your contract  to secure the necessary approvals internally within Nigeria.”

The PHRC operates two refineries; the old refinery with a nameplate capacity of 60,000 barrels per stream day (bpsd) and new refinery with an installed capacity of 150,000 bpsd making it 210,000bpsd  crude processing capacity.

“This is the most transparent contract and we expect the contractor to be excellent with the work. We expect 90 percent operational values after the rehabilitation of the refineries in production capacity, ” he added.

In his remarks, the Chief Operating Officer, Refineries and Petrochemicals, NNPC, Mustapha Yinusa Yakubu, said that what happened on April 6, 2021 was the signing of the Engineering, procurement and Construction (EPC) but the kick off meeting signified the beginning of the rehabilitation of the refinery.

According to him, out of the 3000 expected employees for the project, only 70 expatriates are expected to be engaged, the rest will be Nigerians.

Managing Director PHRC, Dikko Ahmed, said host communities remained major stakeholders in the project.

Masu Alberto, the representative of the contractor, Technimont SPA said that the journey started in 2017 with an integrity test of the refinery.