The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva on Tuesday visited the Port Harcourt refinery to assess ongoing rehabilitation work.
On the entourage of the Minister was the Chairman of the Board of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd, Margery Okadigbo, and the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mele Kyari.
The Federal Government has in March last year commenced the process of rehabilitating the ailing and under-performing refiner by approving the sum of $1.5bn for the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt Refinery.
The contract awarded to an Italian company, Technimount SPA, was approved at the 38th virtual FEC meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja.
Sylva had explained at the meeting that the rehabilitation will be done in three phases of 18, 24, and 44 months.
The first phase is to be completed in 18 months, which will take the refinery to a production of 90 percent of its nameplate capacity.
The second phase is expected to be completed in 24 months and the final stage will be completed in 44 months.
The project is being jointly funded by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Internally Generated Revenue, budgetary allocations provisions, and Afreximbank, respectively.
In a tweet on his verified Twitter handle on Tuesday, Kyari expressed satisfaction with the pace of work at the refinery.
“Visited Portharcourt refinery alongside the Hon Minster Timipre Sylva, NNPC Ltd Board Chairman Sen Margery Okagdigbo, and other Board members to assess the status of our rehabilitation works. Grateful to our determined team,” the tweet read.
Kyari noted that the rehabilitation of the refinery was critical to ensuring that it can deliver beyond the 90 percent installed capacity.
