The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has insisted that the end of December timeline for mechanical completion of the Port Harcourt Refinery Company (PHRC) remains sacrosanct.
‘We have said from time that by the end of December, the mechanical completion of the refinery will be completed. Yes, we are still maintaining that. Nothing has changed,’ NNPC Chief Communications Officer Olufemi Soneye told reporters on Sunday.
Africa Today News, New York recalls that Soneye had on the 6th of November, 2023, assured that the NNPCL was optimistic about the completion of the rehabilitation this month.
He said that owing to the assurance the contractors gave the oil giant, nothing had so far altered the completion date.
He added: ‘What they (contractors) said is that all things working well, the refineries will be working in December and January.
‘That is what has been there and that is what the contractors have said. And we are working on that timeline.
‘And as NNPC, we are going around on every milestone we are pushing out information. So, we are working on that December/January.’
You know I am not the contractor, my own is to report.
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“The assurance we have is that December/January, the refineries will be working.
“And nothing has happened as of now to change that or to move it forward so we are on course.
“If anything changes, I will defer to you that this is going to happen. But in terms of the timeline, the timeline is still on course.”
Minister of State for Petroleum (Oil) Heineken Lokpobiri while inspecting the rehabilitation, said that the NNPCL should be accountable if the December end timeline was not met.
The rehabilitation of the 110,000 barrels per day Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemicals Company Limited (KRPC) is expected to be completed between October and December 2024. The work was awarded last February to a South Korean firm, Daewoo E&C at $740.6 million.