The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has again disappointed Nigerians over the functionality of the country’s refinery in Port-Harcourt, Rivers State.
The Group Chief Executive Officer of the NNPC, Mele Kyari, had in July, this year, stated categorically that the refinery would come into operation in early August.
Kyari’s announcement made it the seventh time the petroleum company would promise Nigerians that the Port-Harcourt Refinery would restart operations.
But the company has not been able to fulfill any of its assurances as at the time of this report, even as the challenges of fuel availability facing Nigeria bite harder.
The NNPC CEO had earlier promised that the refineries would be functional before the end of former president Muhammadu Buhari’s administration in May 2023.
The most recent date was promised by the Chief Financial Officer of the NNPC, Umar Ajiya, who said the Port Harcourt refinery would commence operations in September 2024.
In a recent reply to an enquiry by legal luminary, Femi Falana, SAN, it was noted that the contractor overseeing the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt refinery, said it would provide details on the project’s completion by or before October 2.
The contractor conveyed this through a law firm, Olajide Oyewole LLP, in response to a letter from a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, who had inquired about the completion timeline for the refinery’s rehabilitation.
Falana had written to them on September 17 and 24, respectively regarding the contract with the NNPC.
Kyari had informed the Senate recently when he appeared before the red chamber that Nigeria would be a net exporter of petroleum products by the end of the year.
He had informed the lawmakers that it was impossible to have the Kaduna refinery come into operation before December and that it would get to December. He had said similar things of both Warri and Kaduna Refineries.
According to him, Port Harcourt would commence production in early August this year.