Shell resumes oil supply to Nigeria's state refinery ahead of restart

Shell Nigeria unit said on Friday it has resumed supply of crude oil from its Bonny export terminal to the state-owned refinery in Port Harcourt which is expected to start operations in the first quarter of this year, the company said on Friday.

The dual-unit plant, which is undergoing a revamp and almost set for a restart, will begin by processing 60,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil, before ramping up to its full capacity of 210,000 bpd later this year.

A total of 475,000 barrels of oil was delivered to the Port Harcourt refinery on January 18, Shell's Bonny oil terminal manager Osita Nnajiofor said in an e-mailed statement on Friday.

"Future supplies from Bonny oil and gas terminal would be guided by the demand for the product," he said.

Shell spokesperson Bamidele Odugbesan told Reuters by phone that the oil deliveries to the refinery were made this week.

Nigeria's state oil firm NNPC last month tendered for operators for its Port Harcourt refinery in the oil-rich Rivers state. The NNPC at the turn of the year said it planned to complete test runs at the refinery by the end of January in a major step towards resuming operations five years after the plant was shut down.

Port Harcourt is one of four state-owned refineries that have been mothballed for years, but which the government is trying to revive to end the country's reliance on fuel imports.