The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is set to completely overhaul Port Harcourt Refinery in the first quarter of 2021.
It was gathered that NNPC has concluded talks with lenders to raise $1 billion for the rehabilitation of the refinery, according to S&P Global Platts, which provides benchmark prices for commodity markets.
The Port Harcourt refinery was shut in March 2019 for the first phase of the repair works after it secured the service of Italy’s Maire Tecnimont to handle the scoping of the refinery complex, with oil major Eni appointed as a technical adviser.
In December 2020, NNPC announced that it received seven bids submitted by local and international companies for engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract awards for the repairs.
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The S&P Global Platts report quoted sources as saying that the successful negotiations of the funding arrangement, led by African Export-Import, or Afreximbank, has paved way for the NNPC to move to the commercial stage of pre-qualifying bids submitted by local and international companies for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract award for the rehabilitation of 210,000 barrel per day Port Harcourt refinery.
It said the work at Port Harcourt will be followed by repair works at the Warri and Kaduna plants.
The rehabilitation programme is estimated to last for 18 to 24 months.
Previous attempts to revamp the refineries have been scuttled after the NNPC failed to secure the necessary funding, estimated at over $1.2 billion.
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