The Mechanical Completion of the Port Refinery is a big relief to the Federal Government and Nigerians even though work on the 60,000-per-day refinery is yet to be completed.
What this means is that a solid foundation for achieving full rehabilitation of the refinery has been laid. Other processes that will lead to full rehabilitation, and consequently allow crude oil to be refined to Premium Motor Spirit or petrol, Naphtha, Diesel, LPG, and House Hold Kerosene will follow suit.
Those familiar with the rehabilitation process told Business Standards in Port Harcourt that achieving the mechanical completion phase does not translate into an immediate commencement of production of petroleum products from the refurbished refinery.
The achievement of the mechanical completion milestone does not mean Nigerians should expect refined petroleum products to begin to flow out of the refinery tomorrow, an official on the ground stated. What it means, is that the mechanical components of the refinery, which constitute the bulk of the entire refining operations at the refinery, have now been fully fixed with new parts from the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs.)
“There will be a test run of all the new installations before the whole plant is commissioned and this may take place between February and March next year. It is only when that process has been completed, that is when crude oil could be introduced into the system to commence the refining of petroleum,” a worker in the plant said.
As the minister of state for petroleum, Heineken Lokpobiri disclosed, with completion of the mechanical works the other lines of production are expected to follow in 2024. He never stated the rehabilitation of the refinery has been fully completed and will start processing crude oil into refining products immediately.
He was diplomatic in his statement when he said that the plant would be expected to commence production of Petroleum products anytime after Christmas. No timeline.
“The good thing in the contract is that the original builders of the plant were handed the contract to procure manufacture and import the parts they required to carry out the repairs. So, until they have carried out the integrity test run and are satisfied that the newly installed systems are working perfectly well, injection of crude oil in the production line will not commence,” another expert said.
According to him, the rehabilitation team assessed that when the rehabilitation exercise is completed, the 60,000 barrels per day capacity refinery would be able to refine an average of 40,000 barrels per day of crude oil at the commencement of production. This would gradually scale up to 60,000 barrels per day.
The refinery is a huge construction site with hills of scraps of iron, metals and cables removed from the plant. There are about 118 pumps in phase one of the refineries which have all been installed and completed. Over a hundred kilometre of cables have also been installed. All the cables that came with the old plant have been changed. The columns within the refinery complex are filled and not empty. A lot of the pipings have been replaced and the installation of new ones completed.
The plant is a renewed plant that will last Nigeria for decades. It will give value to Nigeria as it will create jobs, provide feeds for industries, revenue, and foreign exchange and give Nigeria energy security,
The combined circle power plant that is meant to supply the entire refinery with electricity is being rehabilitated and almost completed. However, there is another functional thermal power plant that is on the ground, currently supplying power to the old refinery. There is captive power through gas turbines that is enough for the refinery, and even exported outside the refinery for other people to use. So there is enough power to run both the old and new refinery. Substation One power is run through two cables to the refinery. There is substation B which is the heart of the old refinery, as well as other substations, A, B, C, D, and E that are attached to the old refinery. They have all been energized
In the new Port Harcourt Refinery, the equipment that generates steam and air is currently being worked on. The instrument that controls the plant uses air to control it, therefore the plant needs steam and water.
A good number of pumps that required power have been energised, besides these, are the motor control stations, and switch gear which are all connected to Substation B. All the substations have brand-new equipment.
Both Italian contractors and Nigerian workers were seen demonstrating their skills in the plant. The pump to be used to drive crude oil to where it would be cracked was tested before the ministers of states for Petroleum and Gas and other visitors. It was commissioned by the chairman of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPCL), Pius Pius Akinyelure.
Another interesting thing is that contrary to what some people want the public to believe, that It was only the 60,000 barrels per day refinery that was being rehabilitated and refurbished, the New Port Harcourt Refinery with a capacity of about 150,000 barrels per day is also being worked upon. The contractor as well as the refinery officials that spoke to Business Standards said the new complex should be up and running by the last quarter of 2024. Some of the boilers are being replaced just as some of the pipes within the complex that have integrity issues are removed and replaced with new ones.
There are new storage facilities for LPG where gas from the refinery will be stored before marketers are asked to evacuate it to the market.
All the storage tanks for both white products and other products have been inspected and certified and they are adjudged fit for the services they are meant to render.
He also explained that the reason why people don’t have much information about the project was that the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited did not want distractions, thereby emphasising the importance of allowing the contractors to do their jobs
Pressure from Communities, Government Officials
Business Standards learnt from some other people in the refinery complex that there is a lot of pressure from various interest groups that are feeling that they are entitled to benefit from the rehabilitation exercise.
There pressures are coming from governors, Federal Government officials, and communities. The resistance to the pressures is alleged to have made people fabricate stories that are not true about the happening in the complex.
The resistance to the pressures made it possible for the contractors to concentrate on their jobs. It has also made it possible for the contractors to record impressive progress the rehabilitation exercise has achieved/
The control center was such a fantastic site to be held, as some of the monitors were on with NNPCL officials on hand to explain how they work to visitors.
High HSE record
The Managing Director of Tecnimont Nigeria Ltd., one of the EPCIC Contractors for the Rehabilitation Project, Fabio DelCioppo, expressed his company’s continued commitment to fulfilling the contract terms.
DelCioppo said the contractors were excited to report that the milestone was achieved under an excellent Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) record, having achieved over 9.5 million man-hours with zero Loss Time Injury (LTI).
The Port Harcourt refinery has a combined capacity of 210,000 barrels per day, consisting of 60,000 barrels per day capacity from the old refinery built in 1965 and another 150,000 barrels per day capacity from the new refinery built between 1985 and 1990.
Promise Made, Promise kept?
In his remarks, the GCEO of NNPC Ltd, Mele Kyari, described the achievement of mechanical completion as a fulfillment of a pledge he made to Nigerians to complete Phase One of the rehabilitation of Old Port Harcourt Refinery (Area 5) by December 31, 2023.
Kyari said his management owed the success story to the commitment of the team of engineers from the NNPC and the EPCIC contractors who worked extra hard to restore operations at the refinery.
He said the NNPC was determined to proceed from the latest milestone to complete the rehabilitation of all other refineries on schedule.
As of December 15, 2023, Kyari said the rehabilitation of Area 5 Plant, a key component of the Refinery was about 84.4% completed, while the entire rehabilitation project has attained about 77.4% completion.
“In our quest to ensure that this refinery is re-streamed to continue to deliver value to Nigerians, we made a promise that we will reach a mechanical completion of Phase One of the rehabilitation project by the end of December and get the other plants running in 2024. Today, we have kept those commitments,” Kyari said.
Milestone
The Chairman of the NNPC Ltd Board, Pius Akinyelure, described the milestone as a historic achievement the board was proud of, particularly the commitment of the staff and management of the refinery to restore production at the plant.