THE Port Harcourt Refinery would begin to deliver refined petroleum products in two weeks.
This disclosure was made by the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mr. Mele Kyari, at the National Assembly shortly after meeting with the Senate Ad-hoc Committee on Turnaround Maintenance of the country’s four refineries
Kyari said the rehabilitation of the refinery had been completed, having passed its “completion mechanical” procedure, adding that the Warri Refinery was almost ready too, while that in Kaduna would be completed and ready to go into production by December this year.
He stated: “The completion mechanical means that you are done with your rehabilitation work, now you are to test if this completion is okay.
“As for Warri Refinery, we have also completed the mechanical works on it and it is undergoing the regulatory compliance processes that we are doing with our regulator. This also will be completed and it will be ready.
“Kaduna will be ready by December. We have not reached that stage (of Port Harcourt and Warri) with Kaduna.”
Kyari explained that there were no challenges with the pipelines to deliver crude to the refineries, as the existing lines were fully pressurised to deliver crude, noting: “All crude lines are active and have actually delivered over 450,000 barrels into Port Harcourt Refinery.
“We are confident of the integrity of it. Yes, there may be security issues, but also the government is responding to the situation.”
The NNPPL boss had earlier met with the committee, chaired by Senator Ifeanyi Ubah (Anambra-South), which said its members would conduct oversight tours of the sites to verify the state of readiness of the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries and the extent of work done in Kaduna.
