The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Ltd., yesterday announced “the mechanical completion of rehabilitation work on Area 5 Plant of the Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC).”
The mechanical completion signifies the closure of the Construction and Installation phases, for the about $1.5billion EPCIC project that covers Engineering, Procurement, Construction, it explained.
The Company said the achievement is in fulfilment of its pledge to complete Phase One of the project (mechanical completion and flare start-up) of Old Port Harcourt Refinery (Area 5) by 31st December 2023.
This is even as rehabilitation work has been ongoing at the Refinery for over two years, according to a statement by the Chief Corporate Communications Officer, NNPC Ltd., Olufemi Soneye.
The Group Chief Executive Officer, NNPC Ltd., Mele Kyari, was quoted as saying that as of December 15th, 84.4% of Area 5 Plant, a key component of the Refinery, and 77.4% of the entire rehabilitation project have been completed.
Kyari continued: “In our quest to ensure that this refinery is re-streamed to continue to deliver value to Nigerians, we made a promise that we will reach a mechanical completion of phase one of the rehabilitation project by the end of December and get the other plants running in 2024. Today, we have kept those commitments,” Kyari stated.
He commended both the NNPC Ltd.’s staff and the EPCIC contractors for doing a great job in ensuring that the refinery achieved that significant milestone, which also coincided with the 15th Refineries’ Rehabilitation Steering Committee Meeting.
…we made a promise that we will reach a mechanical completion of phase one of the rehabilitation project by the end of December and get the other plants running in 2024. Today, we have kept those commitments.
Similarly, the Chairman, NNPC Ltd Board, Pius Akinyelure, described the milestone as “historic”, stressing that the Board was proud of the staff and management of the refinery.
“We are just starting. We want to be at the highest level of production so that we will keep the prices of petroleum prices in the country stable in order to give comfort to our people and generate more revenue for our country,” Akinyelure said.
Also speaking, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, thanked Nigerians for their patience and the trust they have in NNPC Ltd.’s ability to deliver on this huge project.
His counterpart for Gas, Ekperikpe Ekpo, said re-streaming the Refinery will herald a good omen for the nation’s Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) industry, one of its major bye-products.
The Managing Director, Tecnimont Nig. Ltd., Fabio Del Cioppo, one of the EPC Contractors of the Rehabilitation Project, said his company remains committed to fulfilling the terms of the contract.
NNPC noted that “more importantly, the milestone was achieved under an excellent Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) record, which stood at over 9.5 million manhours with zero Loss Time Injury (LTI).”