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By Oscar Okhifo, Abuja
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC-L) on Saturday revealed a planned maintenance shutdown of the Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC).
In a statement signed by Olufemi Soneye, the Chief Corporate Communications Officer NNPC Ltd, the management declared that the scheduled maintenance and sustainability assessment will commence on May 24, 2025.
His words: “NNPCL wishes to inform the general public that the Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC) will undergo a planned maintenance shutdown.
“This scheduled maintenance and sustainability assessment will commence on May 24, 2025.
“We are working closely with all relevant stakeholders, including the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), to ensure the maintenance and assessment activities are carried out efficiently and transparently.
“NNPC Ltd remains steadfast in its commitment to delivering sustainable energy security for Nigeria.
“Further updates will be provided regularly through our official channels, including our website, media platforms, and public statements”, reads the statement in part.
You’d recall that the Port Harcourt refinery commenced production around November 2024 after a long period of rehabilitation.
The NNPC-L said the refinery began truck loading of petroleum products on Tuesday 26 November 2025.
The PortHarcourt Refineries comprise two units, with the old plant having a refining capacity of about 60,000 barrels per day (bpd) and the new plant 150,000 bpd, both summing up to 210,000 bpd.
The refinery was shut down in March 2019 for the first phase of repair works after the government secured the service of Italy’s Maire Tecnimont to handle the review of the refinery complex, with oil major Eni appointed technical adviser.
In 2021, NNPC Ltd said repairs had started at PHRC after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved $1.5 billion for the project.
On 21 December 2023, the Nigerian government announced the mechanical completion and the flare start-off of the refinery.
Nigeria owns four refineries, two located in Port Harcourt and one in Warri and Kaduna. But the refineries have been moribund for many years despite Turn-Around-Maintenance (TAM) efforts. Billions of USD have been expended on these refineries without commensurate results in terms of end result delivering. The opaqueness of the last management of the NNPC-L led to vitiated trust. Many Nigerians ,home and in the Diaspora have been calling for a probe of the immediate GCEO, Mele kyari and his team.
The moribund state of the local refineries pushed Nigeria to depend solely on the importation of petroleum products for domestic use for many years. This led to frequent scarcity of the product and constituted a major drain on the nation’s scarce foreign reserves.
For decades, successive administrations promised and made moves, aimed at reviving the nation’s refineries to reduce dependency on petrol importation but failed. All eyes of Nigeriane on this current NNPC-L team as led by Bayo Ojulari. Nigerians look forward to a time when the refineries would be producing at full capacity.