Shell begins supply of crude oil to Port Harcourt refinery ahead of operations

Shell Nigeria has started supply of crude oil to Nigeria’s Port-Harcourt refinery ahead of commencement of refining operations later this quarter.

The spokesperson for the company Bamidele Odugbesan relayed this information in an interview with Reuters where he stated that deliveries were made to the company this week.

He stated, “Future supplies from Bonny oil and gas terminal would be guided by the demand for the product,”

In a separate statement, Shell’s Bonny oil terminal manager said a total said a total of 475,000 barrels of oil was delivered to the Port-Harcourt refinery around January.

Backstory

Nigeria has aimed to halt the importation of petroleum products and maintain relatively low prices following the removal of the fuel subsidy in June. Following the subsidy removal, fuel prices surged by more than 200%.

Despite the CEO of the NNPCL mentioning in a June interview that local refining wouldn’t notably decrease fuel prices nationwide after the subsidy, he specified that the reduction would hover around N20 to N30 compared to imported fuel.

Last month, the Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Agency (NUPRC) mandated oil companies operating in Nigeria to supply a total of 483,000 barrels of oil daily to local refineries across Nigeria. One of the refineries slated to benefit is the newly repaired Port-Harcourt refinery which was slated to receive 75,000 barrels of oil daily.

Since 2021, the Nigerian government through the NNPCL has engaged contractors to repair the four state-owned refineries across the country in a move to boost local refining capacity following the commissioning of the 650,000 bpd Dangote refinery.

In December, the NNPCL announced the completion of turnaround maintenance and mechanical testing of the phase 1 of the Port-Harcourt refinery. The repair works cost around $1.5 billion and was scheduled in phases.