After missing several deadlines for the operational commencement of the Port Harcourt refinery, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has set September 2024 as the new date for the beginning of commercial operations of the refinery.
NNPCL’s Chief Financial Officer, Umar Ajiya, gave this update on Monday during a briefing with journalists in Abuja.
He confirmed that petroleum products from the refinery would be ready for testing ahead of their introduction to the domestic market in September.
This development follows an earlier statement from Billy Gillis-Harry, the National President of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria, who hinted that the refinery was nearing operational readiness.
The new timeline comes after several previous launch dates failed to materialize.
It would be recalled that in July, NNPCL Group Chief Executive Officer Mele Kyari announced that the refinery, with a capacity of 250 million barrels per day, would start operations in August.
Before that, the company had also proposed March and July 2024 as potential commencement dates following the refinery’s mechanical completion in December last year.
