Page 4 - AfrOil Week 06 2023

AfrOil COMMENTARY AfrOil

Port Harcourt refinery (Photo: NNPC)

Nigeria: Downstream progress,

but wait for Dangote continues

NNPCL prepares to restart part of its Port Harcourt complex after a lengthy overhaul

AFTER several years without processing crude, a $1.5bn contract by the Nigerian government
Nigerian National Petroleum Co. Ltd (NNPCL) in 2021, thanks to a $1bn loan being secured
WHAT: said this week that the first of its four refineries from Cairo-based African Export-Import Bank
One of two units at the is expected to come back on stream during the (Afreximbank) that same year. The contract saw
Port Harcourt Refining second quarter of 2023. MT covering the engineering, procurement
Complex (PHRC) is slated This news about the anticipated re-launch of and construction (EPC) work to revive Port
to resume operations in one of Port Harcourt’s two refining units comes Harcourt as part of Nigeria’s plan to revitalise its
Q2 2023. as a contract has been awarded for the rehabili- downstream sector through re-commissioning
tation of the company’s Kaduna facility. of its old refineries.
WHY: The original plan was to achieve 90% of its
The repair of four state- Port Harcourt progress nameplate capacity by 2023, with the second
owned refineries is long
overdue, and PHRC will A statement from NNPCL said that the old and third phases six and 26 months later. MT,
be the first to resume refinery at the Port Harcourt Refining Complex along with Eni, a fellow Italian company, as
operations. (PHRC) would resume operations during Q2 technical advisor, had carried out a $50mn, six-
2023, noting that the project is 64% complete. month “integrity check” in 2019. According to
WHAT NEXT: PHRC comprises a 60,000 barrel per day previous reports, this check included equipment
A contract has also been (bpd) unit built in 1965, known as Area 5, and inspection and “relevant engineering and plan-
let for the Kaduna refin- a newer unit built in 1989 capable of processing ning activities.”
ery, as NNPC appears to 150,000 bpd of crude. It has been off line since NNPCL has previously said that work on
be making real progress 2019 amid reports that no comprehensive turn- Area 5 would be complete during early 2023,
on its downstream around maintenance (TAM) had been carried with Minister of State for Petroleum Resources
overhaul. out for as long as 40 years. Timipre Sylva saying in January that it would be
Italy’s Maire Tecnimont (MT) was awarded finished in Q1 2023.

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