Despite claims by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) that the Port Harcourt Refinery is back and running, emerging details suggest that the Conversion Units of the refinery, responsible for producing high-value products like jet fuel and Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, are not functional.
The reason behind the intention of the state-owned oil company to bypass the local market and sell ‘blended’ petrol from the refinery to Dubai has also been explained.
The Conversion Units, which comprise catalytic crackers, hydrocrackers, or cokers, process heavier fractions into higher-value products like gasoline, jet fuel, or diesel. However, top sources at the refinery revealed that these units are currently not operational, despite the refinery’s Crude Distillation Unit (CDU) being in operation.
The CDU produces naphtha, kerosene, and diesel but cannot produce the components needed for the production of petrol. This means that the refinery is not producing petrol, despite claims by the NNPCL to be producing 60,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
A top source at the refinery explained that the Conversion Units are at the core of the refinery’s functions and that the government ought to give attention to them. “Conversion units (like catalytic crackers, hydrocrackers, or cokers) process these heavier fractions into higher-value products like gasoline, jet fuel, or diesel. For example: Residual fuel oil from the CDU can be upgraded into lighter, more valuable products.”
The source further revealed that the refinery process is not well-optimized without the conversion unit. “Right now, they want to sell the heavier ends to a Dubai company just for them to continue running. The heavier ends should have been converted to give you more useful lighter end products which will add value to the crude,” Sahara Reporters quoted a source as saying.
In a fresh update on Saturday, the source said, “The Crude Distillation Unit (CDU) is still running but the operation of the depot is shut down at the moment. The CDU produces naphtha, diesel and Kerosene but cannot produce the component for the production of PMS,” the source revealed.
“All these products cannot serve the masses as the production of these products is in small quantities even if the plant runs at 100% throughput. The processing plant of 150,000bpd capacity will commence operations in 2026; that is if money is made readily available to meet the timelines because, at the moment, the project has exceeded $ 2 billion.”
The Port Harcourt refinery, which began operations in late November, recently shut down with only its non-petroleum unit running, which is the Crude Distillation Unit (CDU). The CDU produces naphtha, kerosene, and diesel but cannot produce the components needed for the production of petrol.
The NNPCL had initially claimed that the refinery was up and producing petrol. However, there were claims that only the old section of the Port Harcourt refinery was working, and it was blending “Crack C5 with the Naphtha” and trucking it out as petrol, which some staff warned would have an “effect” on vehicles.
Top sources had clarified that the NNPCL came up with the idea of blending Crack C5 with the Naphtha from the primary units because the secondary units are not ready yet. The sources had said that though blending is a standard practice and that petrol is a blend of products, “but the blended products are reformate. Petrol is produced from the secondary units of the process plant. These secondary units are yet to be commissioned.”