The Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has set dates for the commencement of operation at three refineries located in Port Harcourt, Rivers state, Warri in Delta State and Kaduna state.
According to the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of the NNPC, Malam Mele Kyari, the Port Harcourt refinery will be ready before the end of the year 2023 while those in Warri and Kaduna would start production in 2024.
Kyari said this during an interview he granted on Monday when he led his management team on a courtesy visit to the Abuja headquarters of Trust TV.
“Our plan is to bring it (Port Harcourt refinery) on stream this month but unfortunately, we have some slippage because of global supply chain issues that we had,” he stated.
“We believe that this plant will come on stream before the end of this year. We are very sure of that.
“The Port Harcourt refinery has a combination of 210,000 barrels per day so that means it is a third of the Dangote refinery.”
Kyari further disclosed that the NNPC has a total refining capacity of 445,000 barrels in four refineries in three locations.
The NNPC bigwig said that rather than use public funds, money was borrowed for the rehabilitation of the refineries and their repayment tied to their performance.
“We are also borrowing to fix the Warri and Kaduna refinerie. Kaduna will kick up, it is a 36 months project but what happens in the rehabilitation is that you do them stage by stage.
“We will replicate the same thing in the Warri refinery and the contractor, Daewoo is on site working, mobilized to site, equipment being delivered to site and we believe also that within that 36 month cycle, it will also complete the rehabilitation.
“Port Harcourt will start producing fuel this year and by the first quarter of next year, Kaduna will start producing fuel,” the NNPC boss revealed.
