The Executive Vice President, Downstream, Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Adedapo Segun, has said the Port Harcourt Refinery is on course to produce petrol. He spoke in Lagos at the weekend.
According to him, based on the projections for the refinery to deliver the products to the market, it would be unfair to say the NNPCL has not delivered, especially when it is considered that it is a brownfield refinery.
“We gave our projections based on data available. The Port Harcourt refinery, a brownfield refinery, achieved mechanical completion last December and by August, we fired up the burners, meaning the distillation process has started. So, the Port Harcourt refinery has started the distillation process, but yet to produce products to tank specification at the moment,” Segun said.
He said the process at times is interrupted by other unforeseen developments, which invariably interferes with advancement in levels already attained and leading to a halt or restart of the process.
“When the distillation is started, the temperature is raised over time and rises to as high as 300 degrees centigrade. At this stage, if anything goes wrong, because at 300 degrees, a lot can go wrong, you have to bring it down; you can’t intervene.
It could be that the flames or the burner are not at the level at which it should be, because maybe the burner is clogged. You don’t go in there and unclog it at 300 degrees centigrade; you bring it to cool down, clean it up, you put it back, you start heating it up again.
We’ve done this four times since August at the Port Harcourt refinery, and each time a different thing comes up. We have to bring it down to fix it. I’m very confident now that we are at that point now where I’m very, very confident all is set,” he explained.
Elucidating further on his position, Segun drew comparison with the Dangote Refinery- a greenfield facility. “Dangote Refinery achieved mechanical completion in May last year, started producing diesel (AGO) in March this year, which is about 10 months after. Port Harcourt Refinery, a brownfield refinery that we have rehabilitated, not a brand new refinery like Dangote refinery achieved mechanical completion in December and this is September, and we’re hoping to start producing middle distillates.
The same middle distillates that Dangote refinery started producing in March, April, we’re working towards producing it in September. Have we been inefficient? That’s the question we need to ask ourselves,” the EVP asked rhetorically.
He added that it has taken Dangote Refinery from its mechanical completion in May last year, about 16 months to begin production of petrol in September this year, and as such PH refinery not yet producing petrol nine months after its mechanical completion, should not be seen as a failure.
“This is still nine months. But there’s a need to be fair in our expectations. We can set the range of when we think it (production) will happen. But this is a process that has to go through. It’s a process you can’t say, because I’ve said, I’m going to, I’m going to start producing in December, in January, or in March and there’s an issue with the process, and you just say, No, I’m not going to go through the process of getting things right.
I’m just going to jump in and get this, get things going again. Safety is very important, and that’s why I do all I can to keep the people on the plants, away from the pressures someone is working in an environment that is in excess of 300 degrees.
“We’re optimistic. We believe that Port Harcourt Refinery will start producing middle distillates to tank this month. And we’ve said that before. We still believe that we’ve gone through since all since August.
We’ve started firing up the burners again after we brought it down last night to fix something. This was thankfully, an easy fix, and we are going to start eating it up again. So that’s basically is what’s going on with Port Harcourt refinery.
“But I’m very optimistic that products from the refinery will go to tank this month. When you say that, you’re saying that because of what you see, if something unexpected happens, we can’t say because I’ve set a time now force the process; nobody forces any process at 300 degrees centigrade,” Segun said.