Port Harcourt Refining Company

The Port Harcourt Refining Company, (abbreviated PHRC), is a Nigeria-based oil and gas company primarily specializing in the refining of crude oil into petroleum products. It is headquartered in Port Harcourt metropolitan area of Rivers State, southeastern Nigeria. The company is a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

Located in Alesa Eleme just to the southeast of Port Harcourt, the company operates two oil refineries, including an old plant commissioned in 1965 that can process 60,000 oilbbl per stream day, as well as the new plant commissioned in 1989, which has a capacity of 150,000 oilbbl per stream day. Both oil refineries possess a combined capacity of 210,000 oilbbl per stream day.

The refinery in Port Harcourt, along with other state-owned refineries in the country, has only utilised a fraction of its capacity in recent decades due to inefficient processes and a lack of maintenance. This has led to Nigeria, Africa's largest crude oil producer, becoming increasingly reliant on imports of refined petroleum products.

In March 2021, the Nigerian government approved expenditure of GBP 1.08 billion (USD 1.5 billion) for the refurbishment and modernisation of the refinery complex in Port Harcourt. The main contract for the modernisation of the refinery was also awarded in the same month.

The renovation project for the refinery in Port Harcourt, which will be carried out in three phases, is scheduled for completion by 2025.

Old plant
The old refinery comprises a crude distillation unit (CDU), a catalytic reforming unit (CRU) and a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) plant.

New plant
The new refinery in Port Harcourt includes a crude distillation unit (CDU), a vacuum distillation unit (VDU), a naphtha hydrotreating unit (NHTU), a catalytic reforming unit (CRU), a continuous catalyst regeneration unit (CCR), a paraffin hydrotreating unit, a fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) unit and a dimersol unit for converting propylene into a petrol blend product. (You can find a comprehensive description of most of these units in the article about the Dangote refinery in Lekki here.)

There is also a butamer isomerisation plant, an alkylation plant, a hydrogen purification plant, a fuel gas vaporiser and plants for treating acidic water and lye.

The refinery complex
The refinery complex has an 84 MW gas fired electric power plant, and four boilers each with a steam generation capacity of 120 tonnes (t) per hour.

The refinery products include petrol, diesel, liquefied petroleum gas, paraffin for aircraft and households, low-viscosity fuel oil (LPFO) and high-viscosity fuel oil (HPFO).