By Adedapo Adesanya
All things being equal, the Port Harcourt Refinery in Rivers State should commence operations by the first quarter of 2023, the federal government is projecting.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr Timipre Sylva, who gave this projection, said the facility should be able to refine 60,000 barrels of crude oil per day at that time.
Mr Sylva, who spoke during a one-day facility tour of the Port Harcourt Refining Company in Eleme Local Government Area of Rivers State, assured that the federal government remains committed to making the refinery work.
He added that with the rate at which rehabilitation work was ongoing at the refinery, Nigeria will be refining her crude oil soon.
“We are committed to completing this project on schedule.
“I have extracted that commitment from the project manager that this project is going to go as scheduled and that by the first quarter of next year, at least 60,000 barrels of crude oil per day would be delivered to Nigerians from the Port Harcourt Refinery,” he said.
Also speaking, the Chairman of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited Board, Mrs Margery Okadigbo, said the board was optimistic that when the nation’s refineries begin operations, foreign exchange expenditures would be drastically reduced.
“I think it’s a very welcome development. The sooner we begin to produce domestically, the sooner we will begin to cut off these foreign exchange expenditures and also bring down cost; and then maybe one day we will be able to run away from subsidy,” she said.
The FG had in March 2021 approved the sum of $1.5 billion for the rehabilitation of Port Harcourt Refinery, the largest refining company in the country.
The funding has three components from the NNPC, Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), budgetary allocations provisions and Afreximbank.
Dipo Olowookere 
Modupe Gbadeyanka