Despite numerous pledges to complete the rehabilitation of Nigeria’s state-owned refineries, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, is still grappling with the turnaround maintenance of the Port Harcourt Refinery Company, PHRC.
According to an insider, the engineering, procurement, and construction contractor has faced difficulties in fully revamping the refinery due to issues such as outdated equipment, corrosion, missing baseline data for structural integrity checks, and a lack of what the insider called as-built data essential for understanding the facility’s operational history.
With the refinery yet to produce petroleum products, NNPCL is exploring several strategies to prevent it from remaining inactive. Documents indicate that one option under consideration is converting the refinery into a blending plant.
Unlike a refinery, a blending plant does not refine crude oil but can mix re-refined oil—used motor oil treated to remove impurities—with additives to produce finished lubricants.
In a memo dated August 27, a PHRC representative contacted NNPC Trading Limited, a subsidiary of NNPCL, to discuss petrol supply options.
“PHRC is desirously[sic] of procuring high RON gasoline from your company to blend with Naphtha produced from our 60,000bpd refinery (Area 5 plants),” the document reads.
The PHRC representative requested the NNPCL trading official for the delivery of two cargoes of petrol, each with a Research Octane Number, RON, of 94.
Each cargo was specified to be 28 kilotonnes, KT, in size, with delivery scheduled for the second week of September and the first week of October, respectively, at the Okrika Jetty in Port Harcourt.
“Due to the draft limitations at PHRC Okrika Jetty (9.2 meters) the maximum cargo size is 30KT,” the PHRC representative said.
The national oil company, however, refuted any plans to convert the refinery into a blending plant, stating that such a facility does not align with NNPCL’s business model.
“Similarly, there are no plans to import off-spec RON 94 for blending. As for the PH refinery, NNPC Ltd, together with its engineers and partners, is working tirelessly to complete the commissioning of the old refinery, while rehabilitation efforts for the new refinery are still underway,” Sonenye, spokesperson of the national oil company, said.
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