The Nigerian government has approved the sum of $1.5 billion for the rehabilitation of Port Harcourt Refinery – a project set to last for over 7 years. Port Harcourt Refinery is known to be the largest refining company in the country.

At the end of the Federal Executive Council, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, said that the rehabilitation would be in three phases, commencing immediately and would be handled by an Italian firm, Tecnimont SPA.

He explained that the first phase would be completed in 18 months, the second phase in 24 months and the final phase would be within 44 months – about 7 years cumulatively.

He added that funding has three components from Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Internally Generated Revenue, budgetary allocations provisions and Afreximbank.

“The Ministry of Petroleum Resources presented a memo on the rehabilitation of Port Harcourt refinery for the sum of $1.5 billion and it was approved by the Council today” he said.

The Port Harcourt refinery, which began operation in 1989, remains the largest refining company in Nigeria.

At inception, it had a capacity to process 150,000 barrels of crude a day and was later upgraded to 210,000 barrels per day. The refinery has been repaired innumerable times, under various Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) contracts that had gulped huge amounts.

It would be recalled that Nigeria has spent about $25 billion in turnaround maintenance of refineries in the past 25 years, the prevailing development is coming after promises by the administration that the government would no longer spend on the facility.