Barring any hitch, the ongoing rehabilitation work on the 60,000 barrels-per-day capacity Port Harcourt refinery will be completed by December this year and will resume full production, the Federal Government announced on Thursday.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, told State House correspondents after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, that repair work is also in progress at the Warri and Kaduna refineries.
In addition, the development of the Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) is still in progress.
“The rehabilitation of the refineries is ongoing. As we said earlier, the old refinery in Port Harcourt, which is about 60,000 barrels per day capacity will be functional by December and, of course, we still have some time in the contracting time to conclude the rest of the Port Harcourt Refineries.
“Works in the Kaduna and Warri refineries are also progressing very well. We will soon be embarking on an inspection visit to ascertain what the extent of work is,” Sylva, a former Bayelsa Governor, said.
On why the government has not removed petrol subsidy, the minister explained:”On the CNG development, it is very much in progress. That is part of the promises we made, part of the things we want to put in place before the removal of subsidy.
“Subsidy has still not been removed because some of these conditions that were agreed upon have not been met.”
Sylva added:” We are definitely working assiduously to ensure that all the facilities are in place, the pumping stations and the conversion kits.
“I can assure you that work is going on very much in that regard. We may not be in a position to announce exactly what we are doing now or where we are, but I can assure you that work is very much ongoing.”
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