By IKURU LIZZY

The Port Harcourt Refinery has resumed full operations after a brief ?scaling down?, Mr Ibrahim Onoja, the company?s Managing Director, has said.

Addressing newsmen after a facility tour of the refinery on Sunday night, Onoja said the facility had resumed distribution of products, including Premium Motor Spirit, kerosene, and diesel.

?The refining plant has undergone extensive upgrades to enhance efficiency and reliability which had also impacted on production capacity.

?We replaced most of the equipment including pumps installation and cables.

?The plant is running and we are trucking out our products,? he said.

Also speaking, Mr Moyi Maidunama, the Director of Operations of the Nigeria Pipeline Storage Company (NPSC) Ltd., acknowledged that there was a temporary reduction in production.

He, however, explained that the reduction was to help address some technical issues aimed at improving the delivery capacity of the facility.

?We are managing the process with the number of trucks available today, using three loading arms for evacuation, this would be resolved soon.

?Our operations were not totally halted but reduced due to some of the improvements that we needed to make in terms of getting more loading arms operational.

?We have been evacuating refined petroleum products from the refinery since yesterday and its obviously going to be a continuous process,? he said.

Mr Worlu Joel, the terminal manager, also confirmed the efficiency of the refinery, adding that it had began loading of Premium Motor Spirit, kerosene and diesel.

According to him, the depot which has eleven functional loading bays currently uses only three due to its high efficiency.

He said that each of the bay evacuates as much as three trucks in 15 minutes.

He however, expressed worries over slow turn out of tanker drivers

?We have surplus product. Let us say we have up to 100 trucks today, we will evacuate them in five hours. It?s no longer our problem, it?s the tanker drivers,? he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that on Nov. 26, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) said the Port Harcourt refinery had began production after a long period of rehabilitation.

It said the refinery began truck loading of petroleum products.

The Port Harcourt Refineries comprise two units, with the old plant having a refining capacity of 60,000 barrels per day (bpd) and the new plant 150,000 bpd, both summing up to 210,000 bpd.

The refinery has not operated maximally for over two decades.

It was shut down in March 2019 for the first phase of repair works after the government secured the service of Italy?s Maire Tecnimont to handle the review of the refinery complex, with oil major Eni appointed technical adviser.

In 2021, NNPC Ltd said repairs had started at the refinery after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved 1.5 billion dollars for the project.

On Dec. 21, 2023, the Nigerian government announced the mechanical completion and the flare start-off of the refinery. (NAN)

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