The Federal Executive Council ,FEC,  has approved the sum of $1.5 billion for the rehabilitation of the largest refining company in the country, the Port Harcourt Refinery.

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, disclosed this at the weekly virtual FEC meeting, presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja.

According to the Minister, the rehabilitation will be done in three phases of 18, 24 and 44 months, adding that the contract was awarded to an Italian company, Technimount SPA, who are experts in refinery maintenance.

He said the funding has three components from Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, budgetary allocations provisions and Afreximbank.

“The Ministry of Petroleum Resources presented a memo on the rehabilitation of Port Harcourt refinery for the sum of 1.5 billion, and that memo was $1.5 billion and it was approved by council today.

“So we are happy to announce that the rehabilitation of productivity refinery will commence in three phases. The first phase is to be completed in 18 months, which will take the refinery to a production of 90 percent of its nameplate capacity.

“The second phase is to be completed in 24 months and all the final stage will be completed in 44 months and consultations are approved. And I believe that this is good news for Nigeria,” he said.