Port Harcourt Refinery boss says reports of shutdown untrue, insists factory operational
By KEMI KASUMU
Maidunama said operations were not halted, stressing that, “It was actually reduced due to some improvements that we needed to make and we have been able to do very much.
Authorities of Port Harcourt Refinery Company Limited have dismissed weekend media reports that production at the refinery was halted.
This refutation was made by the PHRC’s Managing Director, Ibrahim Onoja, on Sunday, making the second time the government’s side would be denying allegations of exaggerated resumption of crude oil processing activities at the factory site.
The allegations
It will be recalled that Timothy Mgbere, Secretary of Adesa host community in Rivers State, had on Thursday alleged that NNPCL’s claims that the Port Harcourt Refinery was functional were untrue, even as he knocked the company for misleading Nigerians with information as to loading capacity of the facility.
He said against 200 trucks promised to load daily, the NNPCL actually loaded six and that the products loaded were from a three-year-old storage facility and not freshly refined as the government’s company made Nigerians to believe.
The Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), Mele Kyari, had last Tuesday flagged off the rehabilitated plant at the Area 5 terminal of the refinery, with the national oil company saying that about 200 trucks would be loading out from the plant on a daily basis.
However, the joy that accompanied the event appeared to have been short-lived when some individuals and groups started insinuating that supply at the plant had been halted and facility shutdown, alleging that the resumption of activities was staged-managed.
This was later confirmed by a major newspaper which reported that activities at the crude oil processing site were halted on Friday November 29, 2024 and that no loading of products took place at the bay.
This development, according to The DEFENDER on Saturday, made many Nigerians to express concerns about what they described as the back and forth position of the government’s oil company, NNPCL, regarding the status of Port Harcourt Refinery being, the report further said, that Tuesday’s announcement of the Refinery resumption was simply one of several celebrations of it since Tinubu’s administration came to office in May 2023.
Since August last year when the two-year old Buhari administration’s $1.5 billion rehabilitation of the Refinery completed and the successive Tinubu administration acknowledged and celebrated same, many dates have been given by the Federal Government as to when the Port Harcourt Refinery would roll back to work but none of those dates was actually kept until Tuesday November 26 when the news broke out that the factory had resumed crude oil processing activities.
Media checks
Saturday PUNCH specifically reported findings of its correspondent, who visited the Refinery’s site on Friday saying the visit “to the refinery on Friday revealed that there was no activity on site, as some workers met by our correspondent claimed that the refinery was undergoing calibration which might last till next week.”
Corroborating Mgbere’s allegation, the media report confirmed that upon visiting the Port Harcourt Refinery Area 5 on Friday, “our correspondent observed no signs of activity.”
An official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, it furthered reported, revealed that the loaded trucks contained “dead stock”.
He said, “Before the refinery was shut down between 2015/2016, we had dead stock left in the tank, including some Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) DPK (kerosene), and Automated Gas Oil (diesel).
“So, these products were in large quantities in stores in those tanks. During the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt Refinery, Old Area 5, those products were evacuated from the tanks for storage.”
However, he noted that the large quantity of refined petrol was “off-spec,” requiring separation from water to obtain the main product in preferred colours.
“But for DPK, it is in large quantity but they have not pushed it from the tank where it was kept after refined ready for commercial purposes.
“So, the product that was loaded was dead stock, that is the old product that was in the system. So, after these dead stocks, they will have to clean the tank, remove all the debris before pumping the new project into that tank, and redye it,” the source said according to Saturday PUNCH.
The worker highlighted that refineries worldwide should operate electronically, not manually.
“But what they are trying to do at the Port Harcourt Refinery is manual, which cannot match the new digital pumps. Most of the pumps used for the event were refurbished,” he added.
He explained that during Kyari’s visit on Tuesday, seven trucks were prepared for loading, but only five were filled with petrol.
The Chairman of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Taken Ikpaki, while speaking to journalists during the inauguration of the facility on Tuesday, had expressed optimism.
He stated that more trucks were expected to come into the facility to load products in the coming days.
But rather than more trucks coming into the refinery, the number of trucks has dwindled, the report said
The newspaper said, “Around 1.30pm when our correspondent visited, he observed that most workers and drivers appeared idle as no machinery was operational.
“Nine trucks were seen parked, but the loading bay, numbered from one to 18, was empty and deserted, with some workers lying down.”
When asked about the lack of loading activity, a worker in overalls reportedly said, “They are de-watering, removing the water under the PMS. Maybe there will be loading after that, but we don’t know what time today,” he said according to Saturday PUNCH.
We didn’t shutdown – Authorities
However, in a statement on Sunday, MD of the PHRC, Ibrahim Onoja, who took Journalists on your of the Refinery, said it is operational against what has been reported about it.
One of the Journalists, who was on the tour with the MD alongside other journalists in Eleme, Rivers State, reported his observation that trucking was ongoing at the loading bay with over 10 trucks positioned to evacuate products from the facility.
It was also reportedly observed that at the Old PHRC Area 5 process plant, there was an extensive rehabilitation and upgrade of the facility, with refining also ongoing. Onoja, who led journalists on the tour, explained that “the plant is running and trucking out products”.
Also, the Terminal Manager at the Port Harcourt depot, Molokwuu Joel, told journalists that activities were going on at the facility, stressing that in less than 15 minutes, the loading bay was able to truck-out three 45,000-litre tankers.
He said, “This is PPMC loading arm. We have 11 loading bays that are functional, but because it has a huge capacity to deliver, we are using three at the moment.
“Out of the three loading bays, each one has the capacity of loading three trucks in 15 minutes. A truck is 45, 000 litres minimum. We have the ones of 60, 000 litres. Already, we have loaded more than 10 trucks. So before the close of work today (Sunday), just in the next one hour, we are going to evacuate minimum of 15 trucks.”
Molokwuu revealed that there were surplus products available, explaining that the petroleum marketers had been contacted to access the facility for quality products.
“We have our loading arms operational and we have been begging them (petroleum marketers) to come in since yesterday but because today is weekend that is why they have not turned up. If you give us 100 trucks today we will evacuate them in less than 5 hours.
“So it is not our problem if there are no loading trucks, it is the tanker drivers’ problem. We have been begging them since yesterday to come around and take the products but they didn’t turn up, it was just this morning after pleading with them that they came,” Molokwuu revealed.
Explaining further, the Executive Director, Operations, of the Nigeria Pipelines and Storage Company Limited, Moyi Maidunama, said, “As you are seeing here, you are witnessing the truck load-out, we have been doing this since morning.
“We are evacuating the refined products from the refinery and this is obviously going to be a continuous process. We have done a couple of trucks today and intend to do many more today.”
Maidunama said operations were not halted, stressing that, “It was actually reduced due to some improvements that we needed to make and we have been able to do very much.
Maidunama added, “Though there is a lot more than we can do in terms of getting more loading arms operational, but we are managing due to the number of trucks we have available today. So we are using a few loading arms to execute the number of trucks we have today.”
The Chief Security Officer of Alesa Eleme, Dibia Isaiah, who dismissed some negative reports on the state of the refinery stressed, “Everybody is seeing it live and direct that production is on. I suspect it was the enemy of this rehabilitation that is going that is peddling the rumours.
“I am one of the leaders from the host community, I have loaded four trucks this morning. Now, we are loading tomorrow, there is no time we will not load. This time is a very busy period for us. I wonder how people are giving out fake information just to run down the management. It is not good. I want to urge Nigerians to disregard such rumours”.
