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The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has signed an agreement with the African Refinery Port Harcourt Limited for the subscription of 15 per cent equity by ARPHL in the Port Harcourt Refining Company.
Parties in the deal said the agreement would lead to an increase in the refining capacity of the Port Harcourt refinery from 210,000 barrels per day to 310,000bpd. PHRC is one of the three national refineries under the management of NNPC. The others are the Warri and Kaduna refineries.
They stated in a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja on Thursday that the Managing Director of African Refinery Port Harcourt Limited, Omotayo Adebajo, and the Executive Vice-President, Downstream, NNPC, Adedapo Segun signed the agreement.
The statement read in part, “The 15 per cent Share Subscription Agreement, which was finalised on Thursday at a signing ceremony at the NNPC Towers in Abuja is a crucial step towards increasing Nigeria’s refining capacity.
It quoted the NNPC executive vice-president as saying, “African Refinery is one of the partners we have been working with to co-locate in our various refinery assets and they are our partners for the Port Harcourt refinery.
“The proposed 100,000bpd will be co-located with the two existing refineries in the PHRC complex, and it will increase our refining capacity in Port Harcourt from 210,000bpd to 310,000bpd.”
On his part, Tola Ayo-Adeyemi, Group Executive Director, Legal and Regulatory Compliance at African Refinery Group, spoke on the significance of the deal, as he stated that the event signalled NNPC’s full commitment to the ARPHL refinery project to be sited on 46 hectares of land within the Port Harcourt refinery complex in Eleme, Rivers State.
“The project stands as the largest private refinery in Nigeria’s South-South and South-East geo-political regions,” the statement stated.
Ayo-Adeyemi was quoted as saying, “NNPCL and ARPHL since signing a project framework in 2017 have made significant progress. A groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for later in the year.
“The estimated project delivery schedule aims for commencement of construction in 2025 and commercial operations by 2027.”
The statement stated that the project would be developed in phases and upon completion, the refinery is anticipated to produce over 30 million litres of various petroleum products daily.
It outlined the products to include Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol; Automotive Gas Oil otherwise called diesel; aviation fuel or JetA1, Liquefied Petroleum Gas or cooking gas; and LPFO.
“The project is estimated to cost over $2bn. The agreement inked today is the penultimate stage in the cooperation documentation between NNPCL and ARPHL,” the statement stated.
