The Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC) has stopped crude oil processing just days after the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Ltd announced the reactivation of the facility.
A visit to the refinery on Friday revealed no signs of activity, raising questions about the facility’s operations. Several workers disclosed that the refinery was undergoing calibration, a process expected to last until next week.
This comes despite the NNPC’s earlier statement that trucks had started loading petroleum products, including petrol, diesel, and kerosene, from the refinery.
Contradicting this claim, a Punch Newspaper report quoted an anonymous refinery official who said the trucks loaded on Tuesday contained “dead stock” — leftover products from before the refinery’s shutdown in 2015/2016.
“Before the refinery was shut down, we had dead stock left in the tank, including Premium Motor Spirit (petrol), DPK (kerosene), and Automated Gas Oil (diesel),” the official said.
He explained that these products, stored during the facility’s rehabilitation, were being evacuated. The petrol was described as “off-spec,” requiring separation from water before use.
“For DPK, it is in large quantity, but it has not been pushed from the tank where it was kept for commercial purposes,” the official added.
The Chief Corporate Communications Officer of NNPC Ltd, Femi Soneye, had claimed on Tuesday that the refinery was operating at 60 percent capacity, processing 60,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
Soneye dismissed allegations from Alesa community leader Timothy Mgbere that the refinery was not producing fuel.
“The old and new Port Harcourt refineries are integrated with a single terminal for product load-out,” Soneye stated. “This means that storage tanks and the loading gantry can receive products from both refineries.”
He urged the public to disregard such claims, calling them “mischievous and ignorant.”
(Kanotimes)
