Port Harcourt refinery contractor fails to reveal completion date

Maire Tecnimont SpA, the contractor overseeing the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt Refinery Company, has said it cannot make public details of the rehabilitation process of the plant which includes the proposed date of its completion.

The contractor conveyed this through a law firm, Olajide Oyewole LLP, in response to a letter from a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, who had inquired about the completion timeline for the refinery’s rehabilitation.

The letter dated September 30, 2024, said the firm is a private company and hence is not bound by the Freedom of Information Act cited by Falana in earlier letters sent.

“We are counsel to Maire Tecnimont SpA, and we have our client’s instruction to respond to your letters dated 17 and 24 September 2024 requesting information on the contract between our client and Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd.

“Our client is a private company. Being a private independent contractor, our client is not a company in which any government has a controlling interest, and does not provide public services, functions, or utilize public funds for them to be bound by the obligations in the Freedom of Information Act.

“On this ground, our client regrettably cannot provide the information you have requested,” says Muyiwa Ogungbenro, Partner at Olajide Oyewole and addressed to Femi Falana.

Since December 2023, NNPC, which is in charge of all the government refineries, has given Nigerians different dates, assuring them that the refinery would begin the sale of refined products soon.

In July, the Group Chief Executive Officer of the NNPC, Mele Kyari, stated categorically that the refinery would come into operation in early August.

The same Kyari said in 2019 that the NNPC would deliver all the country’s four refineries before the end of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.

While appearing before the Senate in July, Kyari boasted, “I can confirm to you, Mr Chairman, that by the end of the year, this country will be a net exporter of petroleum products.

“Specific to NNPC refineries, we have spoken to a number of your committees, and it is impossible to have the Kaduna refinery come into operation before December, it will get to December, both Warri and Kaduna, but that of Port Harcourt will commence production early August this year.”

However, the promise was not fulfilled in August which was the sixth postponement.

Though the NNPC said it was on course, the refinery has yet to commence operations.

The PUNCH recalls that the 210,000 barrels per day refinery was said to have reached what the NNPC called mechanical completion of rehabilitation work in December. It stated that the facility would start refining 60,000 barrels of crude oil daily after last year’s Christmas break.

Later in January, Kyari said the refinery was being tested and would be ready by the end of January.