Nigeria restarts Port Harcourt refinery -NNPC

Nigeria has restarted the Port Harcourt refinery, which has a capacity of 210,000 barrels a day, a spokesman for state oil firm NNPC said on Wednesday, as the OPEC member seeks to end fuel shortages.

“It is not in full capacity. Production is between three and five million litres daily,” spokesman Garba Deen Muhammad said. Work resumed last week.

Despite being Africa’s largest crude exporter, Nigeria imports almost all of its gasoline. Dollar shortages and the shutdown of its refineries have for weeks left motorists queuing for petrol across the West African nation.

NNPC said this month it planned to restart its 110,000-barrel-per-day refinery in the northern city of Kaduna by mid-April.

Nigeria has a refining capacity of 445,000 barrels per day from three refinery companies but they have been mostly shut due to years of neglect and corruption.

Last month, Minister of State for Petroleum Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu said Nigeria was in talks with oil companies Chevron, Total and ENI seeking help to revamp the ailing refineries.