By Abba Gwale
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, told State House reporters in Abuja after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided by President Muhammadu Buhari.
He said the President had approved the $1.5 billion for the rehabilitation of the refinery, which will be done in three phases of 18, 24 and 44 months.
The state minister said the contract for the rehabilitation of the refinery was awarded to an Italian company, Tecnimont spa, which is an expert in refinery maintenance, while the funding will be sourced from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), budgetary allocations provisions and Afreximbank.
Sylva said that local content would be fully involved in the final execution of the project.
“The Ministry of Petroleum Resources presented a memo on the rehabilitation of Port Harcourt refinery for the sum of $1.5 billion, and it was approved by council today. So, we are happy to announce that the rehabilitation of Port Harcourt Refinery will commence in three phases,” the minister said
The first phase is to be completed in 18 months, which will take the refinery to a production of 90 per cent of its nameplate capacity. The second phase is to be completed in 24 months and the final stage will be completed in 44 months and the contract was approved.
On another development, the FEC also approved N3.07 billion for the procurement of laboratory equipment for the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) centres nationwide as well as the increase in the cost of the repair of the Enugu-Onitsha highway to N8.649 billion.
