The Chairman, Senate adhoc committee investigating Turnaround Maintenance of Nigeria’s Refineries, Senator Patrick Ifeanyi Ubah, has said the Port Harcourt refinery is almost 90 per cent completed and will be operational before the end of year.

This is coming after the federal government failed to meet the February 2024 deadline set for the commencement of operation at the refinery.

Senator Ubah, in a press statement on Saturday, announced the new date when the committee visited Governor Similanayi Fubara of Rivers State at Government House in Port Harcourt said that the work progress at the refinery had attained 90% completion saying that he was confident that the refinery would start operation before the year ends.

Senator Ubah said the committee was at Warri Refinery on Thursday, and had come to Port Harcourt to investigate the work that had been done as well as assess the level of preparedness of both the old and new Port Harcourt refineries to recommence operations.

He said, “We will recall that the old Port Harcourt Refinery was the first refinery in Nigeria built in 1965, and the second one was built in 1989. And for so long now, they have not been in active operations.

“And with the Renewed Hope Agenda of Mr. President, and the desire of Nigerians and our determination; the Senate led by our President, Senator Godswill Akpabio, we had a resolution in the Senate to look at it and make sure that Nigeria’s refineries are working so that we shouldn’t be depending on importation of petroleum products.

“That is one of the reasons we are here and to look into the contract and investigate the level of compliance vis-à-vis the contract specifications.

“We are pleased to note that what we saw is most encouraging as the refinery upgrade and full rehabilitation is almost at 90 per cent completed. We are confident that the refinery will soon be operational before the end of the year,”

Earlier Rivers State Governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, said that his administration was working in tandem with the President Bola Tinubu-led Federal Government’s policies designed to make life better for Nigerians through the Renewed Hope Agenda.

Governor Fubara stated that, in doing so, the Woji-Aleto-Alesa-Refinery Road, now 70 perc ent completed, was being constructed to provide a bypass to easily access the Port Harcourt Refinery and take off traffic from the East-West Road.

The governor said the purpose of governance was to make life easy for the people, and expressed delight that the Senate Committee’s investigation would result in making life easy and meaningful for Nigerians.”

Governor Fubara pointed out that when the refinery was eventually revamped and became operational, it would be beneficial to both the Federal Government and host Rivers State.

“When the refinery restarts production, there will be petroleum products available locally. The issue of importation will go down. We will now make impact, economy will grow, internally generated revenue will increase. More projects will be executed in this state. You can see that it’s a chain effect thing. So, I want to thank you,” he said.

Governor Fubara added, “We might be a state as being presented that we have issues. But we don’t have any issues. Our eyes are on the ball to deliver for our people. Even in the face of this deliberate distraction, we will not fail our people because at the end, it is the impact we make on our people that counts.” (Daily Trust)

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