NLC Protest: President Tinubu Assures Operations of Port-Harcourt Refinery by Year’s End

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has promised that the Port Harcourt refinery will start operating by the end of 2023, according to Festus Osifo, the TUC’s president.
After a meeting with President Tinubu earlier that day at the presidential palace in Abuja, Osifo revealed this on Wednesday night during an interview on the Channels Television programme Politics Today.
In the midst of widespread protests following several fuel price increases brought on by President Bola Tinubu’s insistence on removing the subsidy on the product and letting market forces determine the price, Osifo and his Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) colleague, Joe Ajaero, met with Tinubu.
The national demonstration, according to the TUC President, was “largely successful” and encouraged the President to repair the country’s biggest refineries.
Osifo said, “When we asked him, even before now, part of the things they have also said was issued around the supply chain.
“We told him categorically, ‘Tell us when would the refinery start functioning? What we had from them was that by the end of this year, the refinery – the whole Port Harcourt refinery would come on stream most definitely by the end of the year.’’
Osifo, who also serves as the head of PENGASSAN, claimed that organised labour would ensure that head Tinubu’s promises were more than simply platitudes and that a system would be put in place to hold him responsible.
The unions asked that the federal government “immediately reverse all anti-poor policies, including the recent increase in fuel prices and the increase in public school fees, among other things.
They had emphasised that the cessation of the importation of refined petroleum products and the local refining of these goods was one of the requirements for the removal of fuel subsidies.
On March 17, 2021, the Federal Government approved $1.5 billion for the renovation of the Port Harcourt Refinery, a sum that many criticised as being excessive for the project.
The NNPC claimed that the funds were granted for the full rehabilitation and not just turnaround maintenance when citing the Federal Government’s massive $1.5 billion investment in the two refineries in Port Harcourt.
Remember how Timipre Sylva, the then-minister of state for petroleum, said that the Port Harcourt refinery will start producing oil in the following 18 months? That was two years ago.
Additionally, Sylva had stated that the facility had been finished when she announced in January 2023 that the start of operations at the 60,000 barrels per day Port Harcourt refinery had been moved from December 2022 to the first quarter of this year.
However, because these refineries have not yet started operating, this deadline was not met.

Source: Allnews Nigeria

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