… insists facility functioning, producing at 90% capacity

. Company accuses Mgbere of ‘crass ignorance’

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, on Friday, denied claims by a community leader from Alesa in Rivers State that the Port Harcourt refinery is not yet producing fuel.

Recall that Timothy Mgbere, said to be a leader of Alesa, while appearing on national television on Thursday, accused the NNPCL of lying to Nigerians when it claimed the refinery was already processing crude oil.

But NNPCL, in a statement on Friday by its spokesperson, Olufemi Soneye, accused Mgbere of crass ignorance regarding refinery operations, saying he would not have dignified him with a response if not for the need to set the record straight.

“He (Mgbere) claimed that the old Port Harcourt Refinery was only operating skeletally and was not processing PMS.

“His proof was that the PMS truck-out was done at the gantry of the new Port Harcourt Refinery, as opposed to the gantry of the old Port Harcourt Refinery.

“This betrays his scant knowledge of refinery operations.

“The old and new Port Harcourt Refineries have since been integrated with a single terminal for product load-out.

“They share common utilities like power and storage tanks. This means that the storage tanks and loading gantry, which he claimed belong to the new Port Harcourt Refinery, can also receive products from the old Port Harcourt Refinery,” Soneye explained.

The NNPC chief communications officer noted that Mgbere contradicted himself by saying that the PMS loaded from the supposed loading gantry of the new Port Harcourt Refinery was “old stock” from the old Port Harcourt Refinery.

“So, how did the purported ‘old stock’ move from the old Port Harcourt Refinery to the loading gantry of the new Port Harcourt Refinery?

“Going by the flawed argument of the so-called ‘community person,’ old PMS stock from the old Port Harcourt Refinery can be moved to the loading in gantry of the new Port Harcourt Refinery for a show, but newly produced PMS from the old Port Harcourt Refinery can only be loaded at its own dedicated gantry.

“This is nothing but ignorance on full display!” Soneye emphasised.

On the current capacity of the refinery, Soneye stated, “The nameplate capacity of the refinery is 60,000 barrels of oil per day. It is currently producing at 90 per cent throughout, which translates to Straight-Run gasoline (Naphtha) blended into 1.4 million litres of PMS, in addition to other products like diesel and kerosene.

“We call on the general public to disregard the claims of the self-acclaimed ‘community person,’ which are obviously borne out of sheer mischief and blatant ignorance.”

Earlier, however, in an interview, the Secretary of the Alesa community stakeholders, Mgbere, had alleged that the 60,000 barrels per day capacity facility had yet to become fully operational, contrary to the position of the NNPCL.

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, on Thursday.

He 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.

According to him, ”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,” he deplored.

Mgbere argued further that, “The true picture of what happened on Tuesday is that the NNPC had 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.”