* Mele Kyari
NNPCL GMD/CEO
By Pathfinder Reporter
Friday November 29, 2024
Please, share this story:
The host Community of Port Harcourt Refinery Company in Eleme, Rivers State, has faulted claims by the management of Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) that the newly rehabilitated refinery has started to produce 60,000 barrels per day.
Recall that the NNPCL Chief Corporate Communications Officer, Olufemi Soneye last Tuesday had told Nigerians that the old Port Harcourt Refinery is currently operating at 70% capacity, producing significant volumes of petroleum products daily, and that the refinery produces the following outputs daily:
Straight-Run Gasoline (Naphtha): Blended into 1.4 million liters of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS or petrol).
Kerosene: 900,000 liters.
Automotive Gas Oil (AGO or diesel): 1.5 million liters.
Low Pour Fuel Oil (LPFO): 2.1 million liters.
Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG): Additional volumes.
Blending to Meet Specifications
To meet required gasoline specifications, the refinery blends Straight-Run Gasoline with crack C5, a component from Indorama Petrochemicals. NNPC noted that this blending process is standard practice worldwide, as no single refinery unit can produce gasoline that complies fully with any country’s standards without additional processing.
Soneye disclosed that efforts are underway to increase the refinery’s capacity from 70% to 90%. Meanwhile, substantial progress has also been made on the new Port Harcourt Refinery, which is expected to commence operations soon.
But, speaking on Arise TV in an interview on Thursday, the Secretary of the Alesa community stakeholders, Timothy Mgbere, alleged that the 60,000 barrels per day capacity facility had yet to become fully operational, contrary to the position of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.
The Secretary claimed that petroleum products loaded from the facility on Tuesday were not newly refined but products stored in the storage tank of the facility in the last three years.
Alesa, one of the 10 major communities in Eleme, Rivers State, is the host community of the Port Harcourt refinery.
Mgbere also alleged that the refinery only loaded six trucks of petroleum products on Tuesday despite the NNPCL stating that 200 trucks would be picked up from the refinery daily.
On Tuesday, the 60,000bpd-capacity Port-Harcourt refinery reportedly resumed operations after years of being moribund.
Pouring champagne, the excited NNPC said the newly rehabilitated complex of the old Port Harcourt refinery, which had been revamped and upgraded with modern equipment, is operating at a refining capacity of 70 percent of its installed capacity.
Speaking on Arise TV, Mgbere described the recent ceremony for the unveiling of the plant as a “party”, stressing that the full units of the old complex are not functional.
He said, ”The Port Harcourt refinery, and by extension, the Port Harcourt depot, happens to be the mainstay of the Alesa community economy. The economic activities emanating from the operations of these depots mean a lot to us as a community people, but as it were, now, I don’t think it’s a cause for celebration yet because what we are having in the media space is different from what we have on the ground.
“I can tell you on authority as a community person, that what happened on Tuesday was just a mere show at the Port Harcourt depot. It is a mere show in the sense that the Port Harcourt refinery, we call it area five, that is, the old refinery, is merely in skeletal operation. When I say skeletal, I mean that some units of the refinery were brought up and are running, but not the entire unit of the old refinery is functional, as we speak.
“I will give them the credit that at least they have started something, but not to say, according to the Head of Corporate Communication, Femi Soneye, like it is in the media that they are already producing 1.4m barrels per day. That’s not the case. That’s not true. I don’t want to use the word lie, but as an agency that is holding the oil industry in trust for Nigerians, they shouldn’t put out information that is not true.”
He argued that “the true picture of what happened on Tuesday is that the NNPC has been under pressure to televise to Nigerians that everything is okay and that the old refinery has started functioning.
“I can tell you that the MD or the CEO of the refinery, was in Port Harcourt since Monday; the other MDs were also in Port Harcourt. The MD of Port Harcourt refinery and those heading the operations department didn’t sleep through the night of Monday to Tuesday because of the whole event they had on Tuesday.
“What is the true picture? The Old Port Harcourt refinery is built with its utilities, different from the new complex. The tank farm that is servicing the Old Port Harcourt refinery has a different loading gantry at the depot.”
Continuing, he said, “The party they had on Tuesday was held at the new loading gantry that is directly connected to the new refinery. And so, how does that work? It is impossible. The feedstock storage facility for the old refinery had some stock, old stock that had been there for over three years.
“And so what they did was to release that stock, and then loaded six trucks and then televised it to Nigerians that it is the production from the old refinery. That’s not true. And so I like Nigerians to know the truth, but they don’t need to believe me because Nigerians, no matter how you paint the true pictures to them, get sentimental. They get tribalistic. They want to whip some sentiment and all that the product that was loaded. But let it be on record that it was only six trucks that they used to calibrate the new loading gantry. The product was not a new refined product from the old refinery.”
He also noted that NNPCL only dispatched six trucks on Tuesday, relying solely on the existing stock at the Port Harcourt Refinery.
He further stressed that the refinery was not producing 1.4 million barrels of liters of petrol per day and urged the NNPCL to stop giving out false information to deceive Nigerians.
Continuing, the community leader faulted claims that the refinery was automated.
He said, “As of yesterday (Wednesday), they also loaded. But let me shock you if we are celebrating that the Port Harcourt old refinery is already functioning. How come they loaded only four trucks of product the whole day? I mean, starting from 7 am when work resumed at the depot, it was all only four trucks that were loaded till about 8 pm on Wednesday.
“And they said it’s automated. How can you have a truck under a bay for more than six hours under an automated system? Back in the years when we had a manual loading system, It didn’t take 45 minutes, but under an automated system, it took more than four hours. And then you tell us it is 70 percent operational, but you are loading four trucks for a whole day, one truck staying under the loading gantry for more than six to seven hours. Who are they deceiving?”
He further berated the contractor handling the project, tagging it as incompetent.
He said the choice of the contractor remains the first problem that needs to be corrected.
He noted, “You have a situation where the contractor of this project doesn’t have one single piece of equipment on the ground. The company subleased this contract to numerous subcontractors, who in turn subleased this contract to other contractors. I can tell you that to a very large extent, the result that has been achieved so far in this rehabilitation project was done by local contractors.”
We are here to serve you news and information.
Your donations, reactions, and advert placement are welcome.
Contact us on 08033783144 (WhatsApp)
08023469999
idowuadelusi@yahoo.com,adelusiidowu@yahoo.com, idowuadelusi@gmail.com,
thepathfindernews0@gmail.com
Follow our reports also on X @idowuadelusi and Facebook (Idowu Oluwole Adelusi)