MARKETERS TARGET N500/LITRE PETROL, PREPARE TO LOAD REFINED PRODUCTS FROM PORT HARCOURT REFINERY

Oil marketers are preparing to load refined petroleum products from the Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC) as workers at the facility strive to set it up for production, following directives from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.

According to dealers, the PHRC is nearly ready to begin releasing products, with a projected price of N500 per litre for Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), commonly known as petrol, from the Port Harcourt refinery in Rivers State.

Dealers are optimistic that the Dangote Petroleum Refinery will further reduce the price of PMS below N500 per litre when it starts releasing products. The Dangote refinery is expected to start supplying petrol to the market in May, while it currently supplies diesel to dealers.

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, reports indicated that Mele Kyari, the Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC Ltd, stated that the Port Harcourt refinery would start 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 finishing the rehabilitation work; now, we need to test its functionality. Additionally, we’ve completed the mechanical work on the Warri refinery. It’s currently undergoing regulatory compliance processes in collaboration with our regulator, and we anticipate its readiness soon.

“We expect the Kaduna refinery to be ready by December. While we haven’t reached that stage in Kaduna yet, we promise to deliver it by December.”

PUNCH NEWSPAPER