The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Ltd. has achieved the Phase One milestone (mechanical completion and flare start-up) of the Area 5 Plant of the Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC) rehabilitation project. This was revealed in a statement on the company’s official X (formerly Twitter) handle.
The rehabilitation project has been ongoing for over two years, and the completion of Phase One was a key commitment made by NNPC Ltd. As of December 15, 2023, 84.4% of Area 5 Plant and 77.4% of the entire rehabilitation project have been completed.
The completion of Phase One involves mechanical completion and flare start-up, with the aim of re-streaming the refinery to deliver value to Nigerians.
The Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC Ltd., Mr. Mele Kyari, speaking during an inspection tour of the rehabilitation project, which also coincided with the 15th Refineries’ Rehabilitation Steering Committee Meeting, the Group Chief Executive Officer, NNPC Ltd., expressed satisfaction with the progress, commending the staff and contractors for their efforts.
“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 phase one of the rehabilitation project by the end of December and get the other plants running in 2024. Today, we have kept those commitments,” Kyari stated.
The Chairman of NNPC Ltd Board, Chief Pius Akinyelure described the milestone as “historic”, stressing that 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 generate more revenue for our country,” Akinyelure noted.
The rehabilitation project for the Port Harcourt Refinery is a significant initiative. It is an EPCIC (Engineering, Procurement, Construction, Installation, and Commissioning) project covering various phases, costing about $1.5 billion.
