LAGOS, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA) – Oil Marketers have said that the release of petroleum refined products Premium Motor Spirit popular known as petrol, from the Port Harcourt Refinery would crash the market price to 500/litre or less.
This projection was announced as workers at the facility are on the race to get it set for production on the order of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).
The marketers also expressed optimism that the Dangote Petroleum Refinery would crash PMS price below N500/litre when it starts releasing products. Dangote refinery is projected to start supplying petrol to the market in May, as it currently supplies diesel to dealers.
On Thursday, it was reported that operators under the aegis of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Rivers State Branch, told our correspondent that they paid a visit to the Port Harcourt refinery and found out that the plant might start releasing refined petroleum products this month.
This, according to them, was because the plant had been largely completed, a development that was confirmed on Friday by the National Public Relations Officer (PRO) IPMAN, Chief Ukadike Chinedu.
According to the PRO, marketers, particularly independent dealers, have started making plans on how to purchase and load products from the refinery, adding that operators are optimistic about a price reduction from the refinery.
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Asked whether the refinery has put a price on the PMS to expect from the plant, Ukadike replied, “Not yet, however, NNPC is still giving us PMS at N567.7/litre, so we want to believe that the Port Harcourt refinery should give us the product at N500/litre or less than that.”
Ukadike said efforts were really ongoing at the plant to begin the production of petrol and other refined products, as recently announced by the NNPC.
Recall that in March, the Group Chief Executive Officer, NNPC Ltd, Mele Kyari, informed the Senate Ad-hoc Committee investigating the various Turn Around Maintenance projects of the country’s refineries that the Port Harcourt refinery would commence operations in about two weeks.
He also stated that mechanical works had been completed on the Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna refineries, stressing that the Kaduna refinery would commence operations in December.
The NNPC boss said, “We did a mechanical completion of the refinery that was what we said in December.
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We now have crude oil already stocked in the refinery. We are doing regulatory compliance tests that must happen in every refinery before you start it, and I assure you that this Port Harcourt refinery will start in the next two weeks.
“Completing the mechanical work means that you are done with the rehabilitation work, now you have to test to see how it works. Of course, we have also completed the mechanical work on the Warri refinery. It is also undergoing regulatory compliance; processes that we are doing with our regulator and this will soon be completed and it will be ready.
“Kaduna refinery will be ready by December. We have not reached that stage in Kaduna, but we promise Kaduna will be delivered by December,” he said.
Kyari had also told the Senate that over 450,000 barrels of oil had been stocked into the Port Harcourt refinery.
They also expressed optimism that the Dangote Petroleum Refinery would crash PMS price below N500/litre when it starts releasing products.
Dangote refinery is projected to start supplying petrol to the market in May, as it currently supplies diesel to dealers.
(Punch)