The Group Managing Director (GMD), Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr Joseph Dawha, on Thursday said the Port Harcourt Refinery might resume operation by July.

Dawha said this while addressing newsmen after a tour of some filling stations in Abuja with some top management staff of the corporation.

Joseph Dawha, NNPC GMD

“When the refinery comes up stream in late June or early July we expect that it will run at least 80 per cent installed capacity. It will give us a contribution of about five million litres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) on a daily basis.”

Dawha said the ongoing Turn Around Maintenance(TAM) of the refineries was a conscious effort to ensure that they were all running.

“If the refineries were not in depth or in good state to process crude for maximum gain there was no need of sending crude to such refineries for processing. What we do is to fix them so that we can get the real value for products.

“We are satisfied with the level of work carried out so far at the Port Harcourt Refinery so that if we start processing crude now we will get value for the refined products.

“So there will not be distraction as it will be, if refineries were operating properly.”

The GMD also decried the spate of vandalism of the pipeline in the country, stressing that the NNPC was working hard to put in place mechanism to minimise the menace.

He described the situation as “a very serious matter”, noting that NNPC could not use the pipeline network supply because of vandalism.

“If you send products through the vandalised pipeline then you lose the product.

“We cannot live it that way; we have to repair them but as you do that, it is vandalised again. It is a very serious matter.

“We are left with the option of trucking which involves a lot of logistics to succeed.”

The Managing Director of the Pipeline Products Marketing Company (PPMC), Prince Haruna Momoh, condemned the recent vandalised system 2B pipeline of the NNPC in Lagos.

According to him, the system 2B pipeline in Ije Ododo in Lagos is the most vandalised structure.

He said that already the situation had been controlled and repair of the pipeline would soon begin.

“As at today, the NNPC imports 50 per cent of the petroleum products into the country as part of the 40 million litres daily consumption by Nigerians.

“The corporation will continue to intensify its efforts to wet the country with products from its coastal depots to inland depots.”

He said the NNPC was ready to work with all the relevant stakeholders in the downstream sector of the Oil and Gas Industry to end the lingering fuel scarcity.