Nigeria's oil refinery in Port Harcourt will restart operations "after the Christmas break" following an overhaul, the petroleum minister said on Thursday, following several delays.
Africa's top oil exporter has for years prioritised the production of its own fuels but efforts to overhaul refineries have often failed, leaving it almost entirely reliant on imports of refined crude.
"We gladly announce the mechanical completion and the flare start-up" of phase one of the two unit 210,000 barrel a day Port Harcourt refinery, said Heineken Lokpobiri, one of Nigeria's two ministers of state for petroleum resources, at the facility.
"This heralds the commencement of production of petroleum products after the Christmas break," Lokpobiri added.
Italy's Tecnimont was awarded the contract for the upgrade in 2021, at an estimated cost of $1.5 billion.
Mele Kyari, head of state oil firm NNPC Ltd., said the overhaul of the second phase will be completed next year.
Nigeria's three state-owned refineries, which have a combined capacity of 445,000 barrels per day, have been shut down for years due to a lack of maintenance.
NNPC is upgrading all its refineries in Port Harcourt and Warri in south of the country, and Kaduna in the north.
(Reuters - Writing by Elisha Bala-Gbogbo; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)