Financial Energy Review
…….by Ben Ndubuwa……
Port Harcourt Refinery has again received another crude oil supply from Shell Nigeria ahead the commencement of refining operations later in the year.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) had said that test runs at the 60,000-bpd Port Harcourt refinery will be completed first quarter of this year.
“Testing will conclude shortly, ensuring the refinery’s efficient operation. That phase will be completed this month,” NNPC spokesperson Femi Soneye had said.
Soneye added that the test run was a major step towards resuming operations five years after the plant was shut.
The state-owned oil company announced in December the mechanical completion of rehabilitation work on the Area-5 Plant of the facility.
According to Shell Nigeria spokesperson Bamidele Odugbesan deliveries were made to the refinery this week.
“Future supplies from Bonny oil and gas terminal would be guided by the demand for the product,” Odugbesan said
In a separate statement, Shell’s Bonny oil terminal manager said a total said a total of 475,000 barrels of oil was delivered to the Port-Harcourt refinery around January.
Nigeria has aimed to halt the importation of petroleum products and maintain relatively low prices following the removal of the fuel subsidy in June. Following the subsidy removal, fuel prices surged by more than 200%.
Despite the CEO of the NNPCL mentioning in a June interview that local refining wouldn’t notably decrease fuel prices nationwide after the subsidy, he specified that the reduction would hover around N20 to N30 compared to imported fuel.
Last month, the Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Agency (NUPRC) mandated oil companies operating in Nigeria to supply a total of 483,000 barrels of oil daily to local refineries across Nigeria. One of the refineries slated to benefit is the newly repaired Port-Harcourt refinery which was slated to receive 75,000 barrels of oil daily.
Since 2021, the Nigerian government through the NNPCL has engaged contractors to repair the four state-owned refineries across the country in a move to boost local refining capacity following the commissioning of the 650,000 bpd Dangote refinery.
In December, the NNPCL announced the completion of turnaround maintenance and mechanical testing of the phase 1 of the Port-Harcourt refinery. The repair works cost around $1.5 billion and was scheduled in phases.
