Nigeria: Eight Quick Things to Know About Port Harcourt Refinery

By Ayodeji Adegboyega

Analysts have criticised the latest move to repair the refinery at a huge sum of $1.5 billion.

The Federal Executive Council on Wednesday approved a fresh $1.5 billion for the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt Refinery Company.

This is coming after the federal government said it would no longer spend money on Nigeria's four ailing refineries.

Nigeria has in the past voted billions of dollars for the turnaround maintenance of its refineries with no success.

Analysts have criticised the latest move as another wasteful exercise as they have advised the government in the past to privatise the refineries to make them effective.

With concerns about the endless spendings on the refineries, here are things you should know about the PHRC:

Before the coming of the Dangote Refinery, the Port Harcourt refinery was the largest refining company in Nigeria.

It is located at Alesa Eleme, Port Harcourt

PHRC is made up of two units, the old refinery commissioned in 1965 and the new one commissioned in 1989.

The old one has a capacity of 60,000 barrels per day and the new refinery has a capacity of 150,000 barrels per day, bringing its combined crude processing capacity to 210,000 barrels per day.

According to the NNPC, PHRC's total comprehensive loss recorded in 2014 stood at N27.2 billion; N35.8 billion in 2015; N43.4 billion in 2016; N53.8 billion in 2017, and N45.6 billion in 2018.

In 2018 alone, the refinery recorded a total revenue of N1.45 billion and recorded an expense of N240 billion in the same period.

After a series of on and off operation and rehabilitation, PHRC last operated in 2016.

According to NNPC, its full operation was shut down due to crude supply challenges arising from recent attacks on vital crude oil pipelines.

This article originally appeared on Premium Times

Photo: Premium Times