The Port Harcourt Refining Company, despite being shut down, continues to supply 349,000 litres of automotive gas oil (diesel) to the market each day, according to the latest data published by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority.

The regulator said the refinery, which was shut by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited on May 24, 2025, was still evacuating diesel into the market as of November.

NMDPRA clarified that no production activities are currently taking place at the facility due to its shutdown status, adding that the diesel being supplied was produced before operations were halted and has continued to be evacuated.

“No production activities as the (Port Harcourt) refinery remained in shutdown mode. However, evacuation of AGO produced while the refinery was operational before 24th May 2025 continued at an average of 0.349 million litres/day,” the NMDPRA data read.

The Port Harcourt Refining Company has now been shut down for maintenance for seven months, with operations yet to resume.

Recall that the immediate past Chief Corporate Communications Officer of the NNPC, Olufemi Soneye, had said on May 23 that the refinery would be taken offline for one month to undergo maintenance.

A day later, on May 24, Soneye formally announced the shutdown in an official statement. However, more than seven months after the closure, the refinery has yet to resume fuel production.

The refinery was recommissioned by the then Group Chief Executive Officer of the NNPC, Mele Kyari, in November 2024, after years of inactivity.

At the time, Kyari said the 60,000-barrels-per-day refinery had resumed operations, noting that the newly rehabilitated and upgraded old Port Harcourt refinery complex was running at about 70 per cent of its installed capacity.

NNPC also stated that diesel and low-pour fuel oil would be the refinery’s major products, with projected daily outputs of 1.5 million litres and 2.1 million litres, respectively.

This was expected to be followed by daily production of straight-run gasoline (naphtha), blended into about 1.4 million litres of premium motor spirit, alongside 900,000 litres of kerosene and 2.1 million litres of low-pour fuel oil.

At the time, it was stated that roughly 200 trucks of petrol would be supplied to the Nigerian market each day.

Upon assuming office, the new Group Chief Executive of the NNPC, Bayo Ojulari, said he reviewed the state of the Port Harcourt refinery and found that its operations were being run at a loss.

Ojulari said the refinery was losing as much as $500 million monthly in operating costs before the rehabilitation work was suspended. He explained that although about 50,000 barrels of crude were being fed into the plant, less than 40 per cent of the input was being processed effectively.