The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the sum of $1.5 billion for the rehabilitation of Port Harcourt Refinery in Rivers state.
The Turn Around Maintenance, TAM, when completed, would change the oil and gas narrative in Nigeria.
The development, insider confides, would provoke healthy competition for Alhaji Aliko Dangote who is spending humongous sum to build a world class refinery in Lagos.
Dangote’s refinery is expected to be producing a 650,000 barrels per day.
It is the Africa’s biggest oil refinery and the world’s biggest single-train facility, upon completion.
Those close to the Africa’s richest man say he is of the belief that Nigerian refineries would not work again, thereby creating a monopoly pathway for production and sale.
The approval was announced on Wednesday, at the 38th virtual FEC meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja.
Timipre Sylva, minister of state for petroleum, said the rehabilitation will be done in three phases of 18, 24 and 44 months.
He said the contract was awarded to an Italian company, Technimount SPA, who are experts in refinery maintenance.
Silva said the funding has three components from Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), budgetary allocations provisions and Afreximbank.
“The Ministry of Petroleum Resources presented a memo on the rehabilitation of Port Harcourt refinery for the sum of 1.5 billion, and that memo was $1.5 billion and it was approved by council today,” he said.
“So we are happy to announce that the rehabilitation of productivity refinery will commence in three phases. 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 to be completed in 24 months and all the final stage will be completed in 44 months and consultations are approved.
“And I believe that this is good news for Nigeria.”
