Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia
As the Port Harcourt oil Refinery comes to life, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, said it had concluded plans to hand it over to private operators, following its rehabilitation.
It said it was in search of reputable and credible operations and maintenance companies to operate and maintain the refinery.
The measure, according to NNPCL, “is to ensure reliability and sustainability towards meeting the nation’s fuel supply and energy security obligations.”
In a publication on its website on Monday, the NNPCL said the contract scope shall cover refinery business processes like long-term and short-term production/operations planning; production and operations execution; monitoring, reporting, and optimisation of operations; maintenance execution; health and safety; environmental management; minor projects and others.
According to NNPCL, interested companies must demonstrate “a minimum average annual Turnover of at least $2 billion USD for the financial years ending: 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 respectively.”
On December 21, 2023, the Federal Government announced completion of the mechanical rehabilitation work on the Area-5 Plant of the Port Harcourt Refining Company in Rivers State.
It said the first phase of the plant had been completed, as the facility would start refining 60,000 barrels of crude oil daily after the Christmas break.
Port Harcourt Refinery, established in 1965, has been out of operation for many decades.
Billions of dollars have been appropriated every year for the turnaround maintenance of the refinery.
In March 2021, the Nigerian government approved a GBP 1.08 billion ($1.5 billion) budget for the renovation and modernisation of the refinery complex.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had last year, promised to get the refinery ready before December 2023.
