Ibrahim Onoja, the Managing Director of the Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC) has assured Nigerians that the Port-Harcourt Refinery will commence operations this December despite pessimism expressed by many Nigerians.

Speaking on a Television programme on Tuesday, Onoja said the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari, gave the assurance that the Port Harcourt refinery would come on stream by the end of the month.

He also assured that the Warri refinery is slated to begin in early 2024.

New Telegraph reports that this is coming after some Nigerians doubted that the Port Harcourt refinery would commence operation this year as touted by the NNPCL.

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Onoja emphasized that the rehabilitation of the refinery is now 98% complete. He said: “Over 75% of this task has been completed and accelerated as workers run day and night shifts. We have completed most of the procurement, we have gone over 98%, and most of them are now delivered.

“We have refineries in the world that are over a hundred years old. The basic static equipment which is the metallic part you see remains fundamentally the same. He added that the rotating equipment, which comprised pumps and compressors, had been upgraded.

He noted that the 3,000 workers working on the project had recorded 8.3 million man-hours with zero lost time to injuries.