Port Harcourt refinery stops operation after $1.5b rehabilitation

Less than a month after its rehabilitation, indications emerged that the government-owned Port Harcourt Refinery has stopped operation again.

A Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) member who preferred anonymity revealed this upon inquiry.

He confirmed that the lifting of petrol has stopped in the plant as of 13 December 2024.

However, he stated that he hoped the production would resume by Monday, 23 December 2024.

“I can confirm to you that there has been no petrol lifting activity at the plant since last week, 13th December.

“Tanker drivers are at the 18-arm loading bay of the new Port Harcourt refinery waiting until Monday. Maybe petrol lifting will recommence,” he said.

When contacted on the development, Olufemi Soneye, the spokesperson of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, is yet to respond to the inquiry.

On 26 November, NNPCL announced that petrol lifting has commenced at the Port Harcourt Refinery after it gulped $1.5 billion, which was approved in 2021 for its rehabilitation.

The development was greeted with both optimism and pessimism.

NNPC had announced that over 200 trucks loaded petrol from the facility.

However, contrary claims emerged that only 10 trucks lifted petrol on the inauguration day.

There were claims also that the petrol products lifted on the inauguration day were old stocks.