The rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt refinery valued at $1.5bn began on Thursday.

The Chief Operating Officer, Refineries, Yakubu Mustapha, disclosed this while speaking to newsmen shortly after a kick-off meeting for the commencement of the project in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

Mustapha said there would be progress report on a regular basis so as to have team enlightenment about the project objectives and scope, adding that the Port Harcourt Refinery Company would own the project to ensure that it was in line with the contract.

Recall that the signing of the engineering procurement contract, otherwise known as phase two for the PHRC was done on April 6, 2021.

Mustaphas said, “Today is a technical kick-off meeting. Starting from today, we will be having what is called progress report.

“Furthermore, to also have understanding around the stakeholders expectations and the project objectives that okay this refinery, our expectation is that that the refinery will  be rehabilitated to a minimum of 90 per cent NNPC capacity.”

He expressed the optimism that the project would create a lot of job opportunities, especially for the local communities where the company was situated.

He stated, “This job is going to create a lot of opportunities for our local communities. A the peak, we are going to have about 3,000 personnel working here.

“The project has started today and by our project schedule, it is in three phases because we have the old Port Harcourt refinery here, which is 60, 000 barrel capacity.

“Then the bigger one is 120, 000 barrels per day. We have started and the first phase is 24-months and then we have 36. Ultimately the total completion about 44-months,” he explained.

Also speaking, the Managing Director, PHRC, Ahmed Dikko, said the company had commenced stakeholder engagement with the host communities in other to have their buy in into the project.