The shutdown of the Port Harcourt Refining Company for maintenance purposes, has entered its second month as the plant has yet to resume operations.

The PUNCH reports that the immediate past Chief Corporate Communications Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Olufemi Soneye, told our correspondent on May 23 that the refinery would be shut down for maintenance.

On May 24, Soneye issued an official statement, announcing the shutdown of the refinery for maintenance. However, more than one month later, the refinery has yet to start producing fuel.

Local petroleum marketers, who had once expressed their concerns over the shutdown of the facility, told our correspondent that the repair work was still ongoing. Our correspondent reports that the NNPC did not have a spokesperson as of the time of filing this report.

Efforts were made to contact the state-owned firm through the phone number and email address displayed on its website, but to no avail. The Port Harcourt refinery?s cost of turnaround maintenance is currently being investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

It was widely reported that operatives of the EFCC on Monday arrested a former Chief Financial Officer of the NNPC, Umar Isa, in connection with an alleged $7.2bn fraud linked to the rehabilitation of the Kaduna, Warri, and Port Harcourt refineries.

It was earlier reported that the EFCC was probing the disbursement of $1.5bn allocated to the Port Harcourt refinery, $740m released for the Kaduna refinery, and $657m approved for the Warri refinery.

A top official in the agency had told The PUNCH on Monday that Isa was being investigated for alleged abuse of office, corruption, and other offences.

?As CFO, Ajiya oversaw the release of funds for the turnaround maintenance of the three refineries. All key officials involved in the maintenance and other major NNPCL projects are also under investigation for alleged abuse of office, corruption, diversion of public funds, and kickbacks from contractors.

?Other officials involved are Tunde Bakare, MD, Warri Refinery; Ahmed Adamu Dikko, former MD, Port Harcourt Refinery; and Ibrahim Monday Onoja, former MD, Port Harcourt Refinery,? the source was quoted.

It was also learnt that the former Managing Director of the Warri refinery was detained by the anti-graft agency.

Recall that the Port Harcourt refinery was declared operational by the former Group Chief Executive Officer of the NNPC, Mele Kyari, in November 2024, after years of inactivity.

Then, the NNPC said the 60,000-capacity refinery had resumed operations after years of inactivity. It said the newly rehabilitated complex of the old Port Harcourt refinery, which had been revamped and upgraded with modern equipment, was operating at a refining capacity of 70 per cent of its installed capacity.

The company added that diesel and Pour Fuel Oil would be the highest output from the refinery, with a daily capacity of 1.5 million litres and 2.1 million litres, respectively.

This was expected to be followed by a daily output of Straight-Run Gasoline (Naphtha) blended into 1.4 million litres of Premium Motor Spirit, 900,000 litres of kerosene, and low-pour fuel oil of 2.1 million litres. It was stated then that about 200 trucks of petrol would be released into the Nigerian market daily.

However, six months after the much-publicised rehabilitation completion and resumption of production, the facility was locked again for another round of maintenance expected to last one month. It has now exceeded that timeframe without any update from the NNPC.

Similarly, the Warri refinery, which was declared open by Kyari in December, was shut down a month after and has yet to resume operations since then. In its April 2025 monthly performance report, the new NNPC board said the status of the Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna refineries ?are currently under review.?

Our correspondent recalls that the Petroleum Products Retail Outlet Owners Association of Nigeria once argued that the facility would be of no value without the Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) blending unit, adding that 30 days were not enough to complete the repair exercise.

In its demand, PETROAN requested the inclusion of a PMS blending unit in the maintenance activity. ?PETROAN emphasises that the repair process must include the Premium Motor Spirit blending unit, as the crude oil cracking process is of no value without it,? he said.

Meanwhile, following the seemingly botched repairs of the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries, after both plants gulped about $2.4bn and returned to dormancy within six months of operation, the Organised Private Sector and oil marketers called for the immediate privatisation of the facilities.

It was reported that calls for the privatisation of the government-owned refineries, under the management of NNPC, intensified following the shutdown of the 60,000 barrels-per-day old Port Harcourt Refining Company, six months after it was declared operational.

The Port Harcourt refinery, situated in Nigeria?s oil-rich Niger Delta region, has been in operation since 1965, but later became moribund for several years.

The NNPC failed to commence operations at the refinery after seven postponements between December 2023 and September 2024, but Kyari declared it open in November 2024 without prior notice.

The former GCEO promised to reopen the Kaduna refinery and the new Port Harcourt refinery but this could not be achieved until he was asked to go by President Bola Tinubu.

Meanwhile, in another development, fuel marketers on Tuesday protested the rising price of diesel at the Port Harcourt refinery. The marketers said to be members of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, kicked against what they described as incessant hikes in the price of diesel.

According to them, the refinery increased the price of diesel from N930 to N980 and later N1,130 per litre in one week, asking them to too their earlier payments to meet the new price. The refinery has old stocks of diesel in its tanks.

However, the retailers demanded that the NNPCL should either load their trucks based on the oil payment or refund their money. ?NNPCL/Oando, under one week, you raised diesel from N980 to N1,130 per litre. This is not acceptable,? one of the marketers said. (The PUNCH)

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