The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has announced that the new Port Harcourt Refining Company complex, with a capacity of 150,000 barrels per day, will begin operations by mid-2025.
The Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPCL, Mele Kyari, revealed this during a media tour of the facility in Rivers State on Tuesday. Kyari explained that a major challenge delaying the project was ensuring a complete overhaul of the equipment, which are brand new.
Kyari also noted that the old refinery complex, now fully operational, has the capacity to supply 200,000 trucks with various petroleum products daily.
Addressing concerns about road infrastructure near the refinery, Kyari said, “The Eleme Road has been included in the tax credit scheme, where NNPCL repairs roads nationwide in exchange for tax waivers.”
Femi Soneye, NNPCL’s Chief Corporate Communications Officer, confirmed that truck loading had commenced at the Port Harcourt refinery on Tuesday. He added, “We are also working tirelessly to bring the Warri Refinery back online soon.”
This announcement follows years of delays and a $1.5 billion repair project approved by the Federal Government in 2021. The refinery, once one of the largest in Nigeria, had been shut down in 2019.
Despite being a major crude oil producer, Nigeria has long relied on importing refined petroleum due to inadequate local refining capacity. President Bola Tinubu ended the country’s fuel subsidy regime in 2023, leading to increased petrol prices.
The media tour included Ahmed Farouk, the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, as part of efforts to showcase progress at the facility.
