The reconstruction of Port Harcourt refinery has been completed and ready for operations by the first quarter of 2023, the Federal Government has disclosed.
Investors King reports that the newly rehabilitated refinery has the capacity of refining 60,000 barrels of petroleum per day.
Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva enumerated the developments in the Port Harcourt refineries while delivering the ministry of petroleum resources scorecard for 2022 in Abuja on Monday.
“Our promise has been that the 60,000 bpd plant within the Port Harcourt refinery by the end of Q4 2022, it is being completed and is going to be started by Q1 2023 as promised,” Sylva said.
On fuel subsidies, the Minister said the payment is having a negative effect on the programmes of agencies in the oil sector.
He pointed out that the system is not sustainable, saying “what is desirable is to ensure that petroleum price is market driven and it will also drive investments from the private sector.
“Let us remove subsidy so that the government will have more money to deploy to the development of things that will be useful to all of us as a country.”
According to him, subsidy payments will reduce the profits of refineries which could be used to embark on refinery development amongst other projects in order to generate funds for the government.
Sylvia noted that the federal government has improved partnerships with private sectors to increase local refining capacity
He disclosed that licenses have been issued to some private firms for the establishment of refineries, adding that the federal government has a 20 to 30 percent equity stake in the private refineries. Duport refinery (30%), Walter Smith (30%), Azikel (20%), and Dangote (20%) were mentioned.
Sylva highlighted some of the challenges faced by the sector as crude supply obligation for completed refineries and funding support for modular refineries. He appealed that an intervention fund be established at the Central Bank of Nigeria.