On Thursday, August 8, the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN, announced to Nigerians that the Port Harcourt Refinery would become operational in four weeks’ time, perhaps to meet the government’s August deadline of producing petroleum products.
The association went further to say that the refinery would equally be supplying between 10 and 12 million litres of petrol to marketers.
The IPMAN’s National Operations Controller, Zarma Mustapha, who let the cat out of the bag in an interview on national television, said the refinery would boost the supply of petroleum products in the country to about 11 to 15 million liters daily, and help ensure energy availability across the board.
According to him, the refinery was set to operate independently and sell at the prevailing market price with little or no government interference.
“There is this understanding that the Port Harcourt Refinery is going to perform independently and sell at whatever prevailing market price for them to recover their cost.
“It is not going to be run like a government entity as it has been before. I believe that the refinery coming up will really boost the demand and supply of PMS to nothing less than 11 to 15 million litres daily.
“I am confident and optimistic that this August deadline is going to be a realistic deadline. It will come on stream and fully produce all the necessary components that the refinery is supposed to produce,” he said.
However, instead of receiving the news with enthusiasm, Nigerians were rather skeptical considering the fact that several of such promises had been made in the past without any of them coming to fruition.
A segment of the society described the development as a harvest of promises with unending deceptions.
Some are of the opinion that the latest promise which is about the fourth in the series could still go the way of the previous ones, even as others have volunteered to give the government the benefit of the doubt.
Recall that earlier, Nigerians were told that the refinery would start operations in December 2023.
The Minister of State for Petroleum, Heineken Lokpobiri, had sounded optimistic about the December 2023 deadline, but at the end of the day, nothing happened, and no apologies were offered.
On Thursday, March 13, 2024, Nigerians were again greeted with the news that the Port Harcourt Refinery would become operational in two weeks’ time.
The Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, Mele Kyari, assured Nigerians that the rehabilitated Port Harcourt Refinery would commence operations in two weeks. He made the revelation at an interactive session with the Senate.
He assured Nigerians that the delivery date of the Port Harcourt and other refineries remained sacrosanct.
According to the NNPCL spokesperson, Olufemi Soneye, in a statement, Kyari said: “We will make sure that promises that we made about the rehabilitation of these refineries are kept. We completed the mechanical completion of PHRC in December.
“Now, we have crude oil already stocked in it. It is currently undergoing regulatory compliance tests before we re-stream it. I assure you that this refinery will start in next two weeks.
“For the Warri Refinery, we have also done mechanical work on it. It is undergoing regulatory compliance processes that we are doing with our regulators. Kaduna will be ready by December this year, but we have not reached that stage. We believe that it will also be ready on schedule.”
Kyari noted that the Port Harcourt refinery had received 450,000 barrels of crude for processing since the mechanical completion of the plant in December last year.
He called for the cooperation of all stakeholders in the rehabilitation process, saying, “We are all serving this country dutifully and loyally. Nigerians must understand that gradually, we shall get this task done.”
The statement added that the Senate Ad-hoc Committee was expected to visit the three refineries in Kaduna, Warri, and Port Harcourt soon for an on-the-spot assessment of work progress.
The two week’s ultimatum ended in April and the refinery did not even produce a litre of petrol. Most Nigerians were not surprised as they never even believed the statement when it was released.
Again, on Monday, May 20, the National Public Relations Officer, Independent Marketers Association of Nigeria, Chief Ukadike Chinedu, promised Nigerians that the 210,000-barrel-per-day Port-Harcourt Refinery would finally commence operations by the end of July after several postponements.
He stated that the development would stimulate economic activities, reduce the price of petroleum products and ensure adequate supply.
Again, July came and ended without the Refinery working. Nigerians, again, did not give a whimper because they never took the statement seriously in the first instance.
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