PUNCH
EXPECTATIONS that the Port Harcourt Refinery Company would come on stream by December, as promised by the Federal Government, have again been dashed. The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Heineken Lokpobiri, had indicated the “mechanical completion” of repairs and promised that the refinery would resume operations by the end of the year, but this has not happened. That is disappointing.
Though the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited claimed it had achieved “mechanical completion and flare start-up” of rehabilitation work on the Area 5 Plant of the PHRC, fuel is not yet flowing from its pumps. This means Nigerians have once again been given false hope about the return of the refinery to operation. At best, under government control, the refineries will work only briefly before collapsing again.
This is the latest chapter in the long-running saga of the four state-owned refineries, which have remained dormant for decades. Despite having the capacity to refine 445,000 barrels of crude oil per day, corruption and poor leadership have continued to stymie their resuscitation.
A former Minister of Finance, Olu Falae, argued recently that the government is incapable…
