Timothy Mgbere, the Secretary of the Alesa Community Stakeholders, has claimed that the petroleum products recently loaded from the newly rehabilitated Port Harcourt Refinery were not freshly refined.
Instead, he alleged that these products had been stored in the facility’s tanks for the past three years.
Mgbere also pointed out that only six trucks were loaded on Tuesday, despite earlier statements promising that 200 trucks would be dispatched daily from the refinery.
He made these statements during an appearance on Arise TV, which was monitored by our correspondent on Thursday.
Alesa, one of the ten major communities in Eleme, Rivers State, is the host community for the Port Harcourt Refinery.
Read Also: Why We Are Yet To Start Selling Products To Marketers At Port Harcourt Refinery – NNPCL
The refinery, with a capacity of 60,000 barrels, resumed operations on Tuesday after years of inactivity, initially receiving praise from Nigerians and industry stakeholders.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) stated that the refurbished refinery is now operating at 70% of its installed capacity, equipped with modern technology.
According to NNPC, the refinery’s primary outputs will be diesel and Low Pour Fuel Oil (LPFO), with daily production capacities of 1.5 million litres and 2.1 million litres, respectively.
Additionally, Straight-Run Gasoline (Naphtha) will be blended into 1.4 million litres of Premium Motor Spirit (petrol), along with 900,000 litres of kerosene and 2.1 million litres of low-pour fuel oil.
The NNPC had also stated that approximately 200 trucks of petrol would be distributed daily into the Nigerian market.
However, Mgbere criticized the official reopening event as merely a “party,” emphasizing that the refinery’s full units are still non-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 means 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 recently 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 of the NNPC limited, 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.
“It’s a very big, I don’t want to use the word lie, but as an agency that is holding the oil industry on trust for Nigerians, they shouldn’t put out some of this information that is not true.”
Read Also: Obi Sends Message To NNPCL Concerning Port Harcourt Refinery
He added that the real story of what transpired on Tuesday is that the NNPC has been under pressure to present to Nigerians the message that everything is fine, including the claim that the old refinery has begun operating.
“I can tell you that the GMD, 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 this 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.’
He also mentioned that NNPCL dispatched only six trucks on Tuesday, relying entirely on the current stock at the Port Harcourt Refinery.
He went on to emphasize that the refinery is not producing 1.4 million barrels of petrol per day and called on NNPCL to stop spreading false information to mislead Nigerians.
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.
“They went there because the storage facility for the old refinery had some stock, old stock that has been there for over three years.
“And so what they had, they released 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, they get sentimental. They get tribal. 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.”
For More Information And News Update, Join Informant Online WhatsApp Channel With Link Below:
https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaihFajBadmT29ufud2Z
https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaihFajBadmT29ufud2Z
