The Federal Government through the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva has said the old Port Harcourt refinery will become functional by the end of the year.
The minister made this known while briefing State House correspondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Wednesday.
According to him, the 60,000 barrels per day capacity refinery is presently being rehabilitated just as works are ongoing on both Warri and Kaduna refineries.
He said “The rehabilitation of the refineries is ongoing. As we said earlier, the old refinery in Port Harcourt, which is about 60,000 barrels per day capacity, will be functional by December and, of course, we still have some time in the contracting time to conclude the rest of the Port Harcourt Refineries.
“Works in the Kaduna and Warri refineries are also progressing very well. We will soon be embarking on an inspection visit and some of you journalists will be able to go with us to ascertain for yourselves what the extent of work is.”
Also speaking on Nigeria’s Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), Sylva disclosed that the development is still in progress, adding that it was one of the steps that must be achieved before the removal of the petrol subsidy.
He said, “On the CNG development, it’s very much in progress. That is part of the promises we made, part of the things we want to put in place before the removal of subsidy.
“Subsidy has still not been removed because some of these conditions that were agreed upon have not been met and we’re definitely working assiduously to ensure that all the facilities are in place, the pumping stations, and the conversion kits.
“I can assure you that work is going on very much in that regard. We may not be in a position to announce exactly what we are doing now or where we are, but I can assure you that work is very much ongoing.”