The Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari has declared that the Port Harcourt refinery will begin to deliver refined petroleum products in August just as he added that they were not lying.
Kyari said this in Abuja on Tuesday, July 16, when he appeared before Senator Sani Musa, APC, Niger East led National Assembly joint Senate and House of Representatives Committee on Finance during an emergency session on the state of the economy.
He said: “We are very optimistic that by December this country will be a net exporter. That means a combination of production coming from us, and also from the Dangote refinery and other smaller producing companies that we know are in line to do this.
“Latest by early August, the Port Harcourt refinery will start producing products and the new one will get to December and Warri will also be in production. I am very optimistic, i don’t have any confirmation at this moment so that nobody says we keep lying.
“We are not lying to you Mr President this is a technical process. You can put debts on a refinery start-up, but it is when you get to start-up that you see the real challenges, even for a new refinery. As you can see, even a new, porthacouurtģ refinery, it really has to take steps and processes to get it to full operationality.