Port Harcourt Refinery

That the Port Harcourt refinery would begin operations this September may not happen after all. This is going by a letter written to Femi Falana Chambers by Olajide Oyewole LLP counsel to Maire Tecnimont SpA, the firm handling the refinery.

Falana had written letters dated 17 and 24 September 2024 requesting information on the contract. In its reply, the firm’s lawyer said, “We are counsel to Maire Tecnimont SpA, and we have our client’s instruction to let you know that they have received your letters dated 17 and 24 September 2024 requesting information on the contract between our client and Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd.

“Our client is considering your letters and they intend to get back to you on or before 2 October 2024.”

Our client is considering your letters and they intend to get back to you on or before 2 October 2024.

The firm’s letter to Falana

When Umar Ajiya, the Chief Financial Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), fielded questions from journalists last month in Abuja, he said the Port Harcourt refinery would commence operations in September 2024.

He added that the petroleum products would be ready for testing “before being supplied to the domestic market in September.

Billy Gillis-Harry, the national president of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN), was quoted by newscentral.africa that the refinery was set to function at full capacity.

The medium added that in July, the Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPCL, Mele Kyari, announced that the refinery would begin operations in August. “The company had also set March and July 2024 as the dates for starting the refinery operations following its mechanical completion in December of the previous year.”