The President of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), Festus Osifo, has said the Port Harcourt Refinery, particularly the old plant, can resume operations within one week if the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) gives approval.
Osifo made the disclosure on Tuesday during an interview on Channels Television, where he stated that the refinery is about 90 percent rehabilitated and technically ready for production.
According to him, the major factor delaying the restart of the facility is not technical readiness but concerns about profitability.
“As of today, you can start the old Port Harcourt refinery, and it will function. You can put it on today, and it will work. However, NNPCL as a company is there to make a profit. So, if they want to start it today, within the next week, they can bring it back to life,” Osifo said.
He explained that operating the refinery may currently result in financial losses, noting that the value of refined products may not match the cost of crude oil fed into the plant.
“If you feed crude oil worth about five million dollars into the old Port Harcourt refinery, what you are likely to get when you sell the petroleum products may be around 4.5 million dollars. So, you put in five million dollars as input and get 4.5 million dollars as output,” he said.
However, Osifo maintained that the refinery is now in a far better state than before the rehabilitation exercise.
“In fact, if you value the refinery today, it will be much more valuable than the state it was in before the rehabilitation,” he added.
Osifo’s comments come days after the Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPCL described the reopening for operation of Nigeria’s refineries as a waste of resources.
Recall that the Port Harcourt Refinery was shut down on May 24, 2025, for assessment and maintenance, months after it was rehabilitated and reopened in November 2024.
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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