The operational capacity of the newly rehabilitated Port Harcourt Refining Company came under intense scrutiny on Thursday.
This was following claims 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.
This controversy is typical of the refinery, which has been plagued by a history of delays and setbacks, including seven failed deadlines for the commencement of operations at the plant.
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.
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.
Mgbere made these revelations during his appearance as a guest on Arise TV, which was monitored by one of our correspondents on Thursday.
Industry experts also dared NNPCL to begin the sale of products to oil marketers if truly the refinery is functional. But the NNPCL spokesperson, Femi Soneye, did not respond to enquiries on the matter.
On Tuesday, the 60,000bpd-capacity Port-Harcourt refinery resumed operations after years of inactivity, drawing initial praise from Nigerians and industry stakeholders.
Speaking during the interview, the secretary 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. 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.”
