AFP, Port Harcourt :
Bright orange flames flare upwards from a pencil-thin chimney at the Port Harcourt Refining Company, sending thick black smoke into the white clouds above Nigeria’s southern oil hub.
On the ground, workers in boiler suits and hard hats inspect the tanks, valves and gauges around the metal pipes that stretch up, down and across the facility.
In the hush of the control room, away from the hiss of steam and hum of heavy machinery, the refining process is monitored closely on a bank of computer screens.
PHRC boss Bafred Enjugu sees it as a sign that Nigeria-Africa’s biggest oil producer-is finally “domesticating” the refining of crude into products, thus improving its energy security and ending a reliance on costly imports.
The talk is of job creation, national pride and the chance to help revive an economy badly hurt by the fall in global oil prices as well as providing fuel for the increasing demands of a growing population.
Bright orange flames flare upwards from a pencil-thin chimney at the Port Harcourt Refining Company, sending thick black smoke into the white clouds above Nigeria’s southern oil hub.
On the ground, workers in boiler suits and hard hats inspect the tanks, valves and gauges around the metal pipes that stretch up, down and across the facility.
In the hush of the control room, away from the hiss of steam and hum of heavy machinery, the refining process is monitored closely on a bank of computer screens.
PHRC boss Bafred Enjugu sees it as a sign that Nigeria-Africa’s biggest oil producer-is finally “domesticating” the refining of crude into products, thus improving its energy security and ending a reliance on costly imports.
The talk is of job creation, national pride and the chance to help revive an economy badly hurt by the fall in global oil prices as well as providing fuel for the increasing demands of a growing population.
