Emeka Offor, chairman of Chrome Oil

The company handling the turn-around maintenance of the Port Harcourt refinery in Nigeria, Chrome Oil Services, says importation of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise known as petrol, would drop by about 40 per cent when critical unit of the refinery begins operation.

Mr Emeka Offor, Executive Chairman of the company, gave the assurance while speaking with energy correspondents on Sunday in Lagos.

He said the critical constituent of the refinery; the Fluid Catalytic Cracking Unit (FCCU) would become functional next week. The FCCU is where Vacuum Gas Oil (VGO) and Heavy Diesel Oil (HDO) are cracked to obtain more valuable products.

Such products include FCC gasoline used as PMS blend and Light Cycle as blend component for Low Pour Fuel Oil (LPFO) and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG).

Offor confirmed that the restoration work at the FCC had reached 98 per cent conclusion and would come on stream before end of the week.

“Hope of petroleum products supply stability is about to be accomplished as we at Chrome Oil Services company, the major contractors handling key rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt refinery will complete work on the FCCU.

“The FCCU is about 98 per cent completed and we are hopeful that by next week it will be completed, and it will reduce 40 per cent on Federal Government importation of refined products. The company is among other contractors carrying out overhaul of the facility as government takes giant steps to revamp the country’s four refineries in a bid to address the lingering fuel scarcity,’’ he said.

The company’s chairman assured Nigerians that when it becomes fully operational, the unit would concentrate on the production of petrol which would also go a long way to reduce importation.

He added that it would then resolve the lengthened petrol scarcity.

Offor said that lack of Turn-Around Maintenance (TAM) of the existing refineries in the country had contributed to the perennial fuel scarcity.

The old refinery in Port Harcourt was commissioned in 1965 with a capacity of 60,000 barrels per stream day (bpd).

The second refinery which was commissioned in 1989 with an installed capacity of 150,000 bpd brings the combined crude processing capacity of the Port-Harcourt Refinery to 210,000 bpd.