By Kolawole Ojebisi
The excitement and hope that greeted the news that the state-owned refinery in Port Harcourt has commenced operations may soon start waning following reports that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited. (NNPCL) may sell its product at a price higher than the one by the Dangote refinery now available in the market.
This is as the Petroleum Products Retail Outlet Owners Association of Nigeria has revealed the Port Harcourt refinery will sell its petrol at N1,030 per litre.
In a statement on Thursday night, PETROAN spokesman, Joseph Obele, said the NNPCL announced to the association that a litre of premium motor spirit goes for N1,030 at the refurbished refinery.
The PETROAN spokesman said, “NNPC Retail Ltd has officially announced the PMS price at the Port Harcourt refinery as N1,030 per litre. It was also communicated to PETROAN that the product request portal was open for booking/request.”
He added that PETROAN’s strategic pricing team is currently analysing the most favourable price for its members, saying “We are open to patronising all the refineries in Nigeria.”
PETROAN also urged NNPC Retail to reduce the price further to give Nigerians a blissful Yuletide celebration.
Nigerians had thought the arrival of new product other than Dangote’s would beat the price of oil down and ease the twin problems of high cost and scarcity of oil.
While one of the problems— scarcity — appears to soon be a thing of the past, the problem of “high cost” may stay with the country a bit longer with the latest report
Recall that the Dangote refinery recently announced a N20 reduction in the price of its PMS, putting it at N970 instead of N990.
Speaking on claims that the refinery was not working as claimed, Obele stated, “We state emphatically that the old Port Harcourt refinery is functional and producing refined ppetroleum products at the moment.
“On Tuesday, November 26, 2024, the top management of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited led by Mele Kyari took stakeholders and journalists to the plant with a view of having first-hand information and to see things themselves.
“The old Port Harcourt refinery is currently operating at 70 per cent of its installed capacity, with plans to ramp up to 90 percent.”
“As part of PETROAN’s oversight function as key stakeholders, we have direct access to the plant on the authorisation of management and we will encourage whoever is doubting the functional status of the plant to contact NNPC management for facility tour rather than spreading misleading information.
“It is more important to state here that the functional plant in operation is the old refinery with a capacity of 60,000 barrels per day, while the new port Harcourt refinery with a capacity of 200,000 barrels per day is still under rehabilitation which is due to commence production soon as announced by the management of NNPCL. Both Refineries are within the same complex at Alesa Eleme in Rivers State,” he stated further.
