The hope of all well-meaning Nigerians of having functional refineries has been rekindled by Nigeria’s oil marketers saying the Port Harcourt Refinery would commence commercial production in the coming weeks.

The national president of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria, Billy Gillis-Harry made this known in an interview with DAILY POST on Monday, August 12, 2024.

He said his recent visit to the 250 barrels per day refinery indicated read
is to produce petroleum products in commercial quantities.

Gillis-Harry explained that the full-scale kickoff of Port Harcourt Refinery and Dangote Refinery would guarantee an end to fuel queues in Nigeria.

“Port Harcourt Refinery is gearing up to be on stream to produce Petroleum in commercial quantity. We pray and hope that in the coming days or weeks, this comes to light. I went personally to the refinery. I saw efforts in place to ensure the refinery works”, he told DAILY POST.

In the same vein, an oil and gas expert, Zakka Bala, said the hope for Nigeria’s energy security lies with the revitalization of its Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna refineries.

According to him, Dangote Refinery is in the business to make a profit but the government-owned refineries are to provide services for Nigerians.

According to him, the government must not allow those who do not want the country’s national refineries to succeed.

“For me, I am bothered about the government-owned refinery. Dangote Refinery is a private business. The company is built to maximize profits. We need to understand why private businesses are profit-centered.

“The moment the private refineries start collecting crude allocation from national refineries, they will never want the refineries to come up again”, he stated.

The Group Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Mele Kyari had in July projected that the Port Harcourt refinery would commence operation in August this year.

This comes after the Nigerian government in 2021 approved $1.5 billion for the turnaround maintenance of the refinery.

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