The Managing Director, Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC), Mr Ibrahim Onoja, has assured that the procurement process for the rehabilitation of the refinery is 98 percent complete.
He made this assertion while appearing on a programme on Arise TV on Thursday monitored by Persecond News.
Onoja said he is confident that the 60,000 barrels of crude per day Port Harcourt Refinery capacity that was shut in March 2019 for the first phase of repair works, will be up and running by December 2023.
He said: “Basic markers for a major project like this is the delivery of your long lead items. We have items here that we have installed in the plant that took 18 months to manufacture.
“So our long lead items are on site, instrumentations are on site. We have completed most of the procurement that we need to do. The procurement, we have gone over 98 percent; most of them are now delivered and they are on site.
“The piping work we are doing, we have progressed extensively. For electricity, we have had most of our cable laying done. Many of our substations have been energised.
“So, when I say December is feasible, yes. So, that makes me much more comfortable. For the construction, that is a part that I am finishing now. And that is the part for the old refinery, I will have it ready by December 2023,” Onoja said.
Mr Heineken Lokpobiri, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (oil), had in August while inspecting the progress of work at the refinery, assured that Port Harcourt refinery will come on stream by the end of the year.
“From what we have seen here today, Port Harcourt Refinery will come on board by the end of the year, Warri will come on stream by the end of the first quarter of next year, and Kaduna will also come on board towards the end of next year.
“If you add that to the Dangote Refinery, we will be able to stop fuel importation and Nigerians will enjoy the full benefits of deregulation,” he said.
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