Oil suppliers are preparing to load refined fuel from the Port Harcourt Refinery, as employees at the plant hustle to ready it for production under the guidance of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.
Traders verified on Friday that the Port Harcourt Refinery was nearing readiness to commence product release, forecasting a price of N500 per liter for Premium Motor Spirit, commonly known as petrol, from the Rivers State-based facility.
They further conveyed hope that the Dangote Petroleum Refinery would significantly reduce the price of PMS below N500 per liter once it begins distributing products. The Dangote refinery is expected to enter the petrol market in May, while currently catering to diesel demands among traders.
It surfaced on Thursday that operators associated with the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Rivers State Branch, shared with the media their visit to the Port Harcourt refinery. According to their observations, there are indications that the plant could start distributing refined petroleum products within the current month.
They attributed this to the near-completion status of the plant, a claim supported on Friday by Chief Ukadike Chinedu, the National Public Relations Officer of IPMAN.
According to the IPMAN PRO, marketers, particularly independent dealers, have started making plans on how to purchase and load products from the refinery, adding that operators are optimistic about a price reduction from the refinery.
Asked whether the refinery has put a price on the PMS to expect from the plant, Ukadike replied, “Not yet. However, NNPC is still giving us PMS at N567.7/litre, so we want to believe that the Port Harcourt refinery should give us the product at N500/litre or less than that.”
Ukadike stated efforts were really ongoing at the plant to begin the production of petrol and other refined products, as recently announced by the NNPC.
On March 15, 2024, it was reported that the Group Chief Executive Officer, NNPC Ltd, Mele Kyari, stated that the Port Harcourt refinery would commence operations in about two weeks.
He also stated that mechanical works had been completed on the Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna refineries, stressing that the Kaduna refinery would commence operations in December.
The NNPC boss had disclosed this during a press briefing after he appeared before the Senate Ad-hoc Committee investigating the various Turn Around Maintenance projects of the country’s refineries.
He said, “We did a mechanical completion of the refinery that was what we said in December. We now have crude oil already stocked in the refinery. We are doing regulatory compliance tests that must happen in every refinery before you start it, and I assure you that this Port Harcourt refinery will start in the next two weeks.
“Completing the mechanical work means that you are done with the rehabilitation work, now you have to test to see how it works. Of course, we have also completed the mechanical work on the Warri refinery. It is also undergoing regulatory compliance; processes that we are doing with our regulator and this will soon be completed and it will be ready.
“Kaduna refinery will be ready by December. We have not reached that stage in Kaduna, but we promise Kaduna will be delivered by December.”
Kyari also briefed the Senate, revealing that the Port Harcourt refinery had stocked over 450,000 barrels of oil.
Meanwhile, Ukadike also informed journalists on Friday that marketers were implementing strategies to enable bulk purchases, given that the Dangote Petroleum Refinery’s initial diesel sales began with no fewer than one million liters.
“So when they resume at Port Harcourt refinery and they key into what Dangote has done by selling in bulk, it means that we the independent marketers particularly in the South-East should be able to have a company that can be able to buy up to four/five million litres from the refinery.
“We are also planning to reach NNPC Trading to see whether they will be able to send 20,000 metric tonnes of PMS to our depots, strictly for independent marketers.
“From every indication, the Port Harcourt refinery is almost set to start releasing products. The government has told us that the plant will start production, at least by the end of this month. So we don’t want to be caught unprepared, for instance, if they say we should pay for two million litres and we can’t be able to pay,” the IPMAN official stated.
Ukadike also stated that oil marketers were discussing with their banks, adding that the financial institutions “are ready to fund such bulk allocations so that we can be able to distribute it nationwide because we have the reach.”
Earlier, Tekena Ikpaki, the Chairman of IPMAN, Port Harcourt Branch, had disclosed to our correspondent that the management of the Port Harcourt refinery had provided reassurances to dealers concerning the forthcoming commencement of operations, with operators in Rivers State geared up to procure products from the facility.