The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd (NNPC) as rekindled and re-energized the hope of Nigerians as it fulfilled its pledge of achieving the mechanical completion of rehabilitation work on Area 5 Plant of the Port Harcourt Refinery, Rivers State.
Persecondnews recalls that rehabilitation work has been ongoing at the refinery for over two years and the NNPC Ltd had pledged to complete the Phase One of the project (mechanical completion and flare start-up) of old Port Harcourt Refinery (Area 5) by December 31, 2023.
Speaking during an inspection tour of the rehabilitation project on Thursday which also coincided with the 15th Refineries Steerco Meeting, the Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC Ltd, Mr. Mele Kyari, said as at December 15th 2023, 84.4% of Area 5 plant, a key component of the refinery and 77.4 percent of the entire rehabilitation project had been completed.
“In our quest to ensure that this refinery is re-streamed to continue to deliver value to Nigerians, we made a promise that we will reach a mechanical completion of the phase one of the rehabilitation project by the end of December.
“And also get the other plants running in the last quarter of 2024. Today, we have kept to those commitments,” Kyari said.
The GCEO commended the NNPC Ltd’s staff and the EPCIC contractors for doing a great job in ensuring that the refinery achieved the milestone.
The Chairman of NNPC Ltd Board, Chief Pius Akinyelure, described the resuscitation of the facility as “historic”, saying the board was proud of the staff and management of the refinery.
“We are just starting. We want to be at the highest level of production so that we will keep the prices of petroleum prices in the country stable in order to give comfort to our people and also generate more revenue for our country,” Akinyelure said.
Also speaking, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Sen. Heineken Lokpobiri, said the Port Harcourt refinery is another landmark project of the renewed hope agenda of President Bola Tinubu.
He thanked Nigerians for their patience and the trust they have in the NNPC Ltd’s ability to deliver on the huge project.
In his address, the Minister of State for Petroleum (Gas), Mr Ekperikpe Ekpo, said re-streaming the refinery would herald a good omen for the nation’s Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) industry as LPG, also known as cooking gas, is a major by-product of the refinery.
The PHRC rehabilitation project, which costs about $1.5bn, is an EPCIC project which covers Engineering, Procurement, Construction, Installation, and Commissioning phases. For Area 5, the Engineering, Procurement, Construction, and Installation have all been completed.
The mechanical completion signifies the closure of the construction and Installation phases.
Notably, the milestone was achieved under an excellent Health Safety and Environment (HSE) record which stood at over 9.5 million man-hours with zero Loss Time Injury (LTI).
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