BUSINESS DAY
If you think getting a $1.5bn cheque for producing nothing is virtually daydreaming, you haven’t met Nigeria’s Port Harcourt refinery.
So much of Nigeria’s resources have been wasted under elaborate maintenance that leaves the refineries poorer than they were and their managers richer than they should have been.
Originally scheduled for completion in 2019, the refurbishment and upgrade of the Port Harcourt Refinery, located in Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta region, have remained at the promised stage of every administration since 1999.
BusinessDay’s findings showed the refinery under the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has again failed to commence operations after about seven postponements.
The move comes about four years after an approval of a $1.5 billion contract to Italian Marie Technimont in April 2021 for the renovation and modernisation of the refinery.
Umar Ajiya, chief financial officer at NNPC, had on August 20, 2024, announced September 1, 2024, as a new date for the commercial commencement of Port Harcourt refinery.
According to him, the petroleum products will be ready for testing before it is usually supplied to the domestic market in September 2024.
Heineken Lokpobiri, minister of state for petroleum resources (oil), said on May 29, 2024, that the Port Harcourt refinery would start petrol production within the quarter ending August 2023.
“They (NNPC) give me reports weekly. The reports I have on my table before I came here is that hydrocarbons have been introduced,” the minister said on Channels Television’s May 29 Special programme on the first anniversary of President Bola Tinubu.
“The report available to me from the NNPC shows that within the next quarter, hydrocarbons will be refined and sold to the public,” he added.
This was not the first time the minister would tell Nigerians the Port Harcourt refinery would come on stream.
Era of missed deadlines
On the many previously failed deadlines given by the current administration for the operationalisation of the Port Harcourt refinery, the minister said he should not be blamed for the failed deadlines.
“I met the rehabilitation works on the ground and told Nigerians what I was briefed,” he said.
Last August, shortly after Lokpobiri was sworn in as minister, he pledged that the Port Harcourt refinery would be back on stream by December 2023.
In December 2023, the minister announced to Nigerians that the Port Harcourt refinery had “commenced operation after years of underperformance, closure, and turnaround maintenance,” yet not a drop of refined petroleum product was discharged at the refinery.
Most Nigerians have lost count of the different dates given by government officials for the resumption of refining activities at the Port Harcourt refinery.
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