FEC approves $1.5bn to rehabilitate Port Harcourt refinery

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari, on Wednesday, approved 1.5 billion dollars to rehabilitate the Port Harcourt refinery.

FEC meeting chaired by President Buhari, approves $1.5 billion for refinery rehabilitation

Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, announced this in a press briefing to State House journalists on the outcome of the Council meeting which took place at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva

In accordance with him, the rehabilitation will be done in three phases of 18, 24 and 44 months.

The minister disclosed that the rehabilitation was in realisation of the Federal Government’s aspiration to revive the nation’s refineries to lessen the expense of processing petroleum products and also improve the economy.

He said, “The Ministry of Petroleum Resources presented a memo on the rehabilitation of Port Harcourt Refinery for the sum of 1.5 billion dollars, and that memo was 1.5 billion dollars and it was approved by the council today.

“So, we are happy to announce that the rehabilitation of Port Harcourt refinery will commence forthwith. It is in three phases.

“The first phase is to be completed in 18 months, which will take the refinery to a production of 90 per cent of its nameplate capacity.

“The second phase is completed in 24 months and all the final stages will be completed in 44 months and consultations are approved.

“I believe that this is good news for Nigerians. The rehabilitation of refineries has commenced.”

Sylva further said that an Italian company would embark on the repairs and a maintenance company would be set up as well, to guarantee efficient maintenance culture.

He stated, “The contractor that was approved by the council today is Tecnimont, SPA of Italy.

“Talking about operations and maintenance, that has been a big problem for our refineries and that was also exhaustively discussed in council and the agreement is that we are going to appoint a professional operations and maintenance and operations company to manage the refinery when it is finally rehabilitated.

“It is actually one of the conditions presented by the lenders because the lenders said they can give us the money if we have a professional operations and maintenance company and that already is embedded in our discussions with the lenders. We’re not going back on that.”

As indicated by Sylva, the required fund to rehabilitate the refinery has been set aside, stating that the Federal Government, Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Africa Export-Import Bank AFREXIM will fund the project.

The minister guaranteed that rehabilitation works on Kaduna and Warri refineries would also be executed on or before May 2023.