Doubts As FG Restates Plan To Pull P/Harcourt Refinery Back To Work

The Port Harcourt refinery will be ready by December 2023 as had been earlier scheduled, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Heineken Lokpobiri, has said.

The minister spoke after inspecting the refinery facilities to ascertain the level of work done.

The federal government started the repairs of the refinery in 2021 with $1.5 billion allocated for the project, which had earlier been scheduled to start working by December 2022.

The scheduled time for production in the 210,000 barrel per day capacity refineries has been shifted twice, raising doubts about the government’s seriousness in making the refinery functional

Recently, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration made a renewed commitment to pull the refineries back to work, as part of the agreement with organized Labour to shelve their nationwide strike over the removal of fuel subsidy and its consequential increase in the pump price of petrol.

The Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC and Trade Union Congress, TUC had demanded the repairs of all the refineries in the country to ease the frequent increase in the price of fuel in the country.

Reiterating the government’s commitment to ensure that the refineries become functional, the minister said repairs are currently ongoing to beat the deadline.

He explained that other refineries in Warri and Kaduna, including Dangote Refineries will start work by the end of 2024, adding that the aim of the government is to ensure better supply of petroleum products in the country.

According to him, “Our objective is to ensure that in the next few years, Nigeria will stop fuel importation. The idea is to ensure that we complete these refineries on time to enable the people enjoy the benefits of deregulation.

“These things take time to do, but Nigerians should expect better supply of fuel and better economy. We believe that this projects will be completed as scheduled to renew the hopes of Nigerians.”

Meanwhile, Nigerians are curious why the Dangote Refinery has not started production, three months after it was commissioned by former President Muhammadu Buhari.

Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote, the owner of the multi-billion dollar petrochemical refinery promised that production would commence by July this year.