NNPC Clears Air on Alleged Claim to Convert Port Harcourt Refinery Into Blending Plant
- The Port Harcourt refinery's turnaround maintenance is being difficult for the NNPC Limited to complete
- This is in spite of several promises to complete the state-owned refineries' renovation
- According to insiders, there have been significant challenges in starting up activities at the refinery
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Legit.ng journalist Zainab Iwayemi has over 3-year-experience covering the Economy, Technology, and Capital Market.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited is struggling to finish the turnaround maintenance at the Port Harcourt refinery, according to insiders.
This is despite many pledges to finish the rehabilitation of the state-owned refineries.
Source: UGC
The combined crude processing capacity of the two refineries owned and operated by the Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC) is 210,000 barrels per stream day (bpsd). The old plant has a capacity of 60,000 bpsd, while the new facility has an installed capacity of 150,000 bpsd.
Insiders told The Cable that attempts to start up operations at the refinery have encountered major obstacles.
According to a source, the refinery's obsolescence, corrosion, lack of baseline data for structural integrity verifications, and lack of as-built data to assist engineers in drawing on the facility's history have prevented the engineering, procurement, and construction contractor from completely revamping it.
Is NNPC converting PH refinery?
Insiders close to the rehabilitation efforts said since the refinery is yet to produce petroleum products, the NNPC is considering various options to ensure that it does not remain moribund.
According to documents seen by TheCable, one of the options available to the national oil company is to retrofit the refinery into a blending plant.
An oil blending facility can be used to blend re-refined oil—used motor oil that has been cleaned of water, gasoline, and debris—with additives to produce final lubricant goods, but it lacks the capacity to refine.
A PHRC representative contacted a representative at NNPC Trading Limited, a NNPC subsidiary, regarding the gasoline delivery in a note dated August 27.
“PHRC is desirously[sic] of procuring high RON gasoline from your company to blend with Naphtha produced from our 60,000bpd refinery (Area 5 plants),” the document reads.
The NNPC trading official was ordered to provide two cargoes of gasoline with RON 94 specifications by the PHRC representative.
The goods was to be delivered to the Okrika Jetty in Port Harcourt in the second week of September and the first week of October, respectively, with a requested cargo size of 28 kilotonnes (KT) each.
“Due to the draft limitations at PHRC Okrika Jetty (9.2 meters) the maximum cargo size is 30KT,” the PHRC representative said in the correspondence.
NNPC denies plan to convert
The national oil company, denied plans to turn the refinery into a blending plant when TheCable contacted them. According to the NNPC, the company's business model is not compatible with a blending plant.
“Similarly, there are no plans to import off-spec RON 94 for blending. As for the PH refinery, NNPC Ltd, together with its engineers and partners, is working tirelessly to complete the commissioning of the old refinery, while rehabilitation efforts for the new refinery are still underway,” Sonenye, spokesperson of the national oil company, said.
FG speaks on sale of Port Harcourt refinery
Legit.ng reported that the Nigerian government, on Tuesday, September 10, 2024, blamed the current state of Nigeria’s refineries, including the Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna refineries, on labour opposition to selling them to Aliko Dangote and Femi Otedola.
The special adviser to President Bola Tinubu on information and strategy, Bayo Onanuga, disclosed this as he reacted to trade union claims of human rights abuses against the government over the arrest of the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero.
Joe Ajaero could not attend the meeting organised by the Trade Union Congress in the UK, which began on Tuesday, due to his arrest.
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Source: Legit.ng
