The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has debunked claims by Alesa community leader in Rivers State alleging that the Port Harcourt refinery is not yet producing fuel.

The community leader, identified as Timothy Mgbere, had on national television on Thursday, November 28, 2024, said the much-publicised restreaming of the Port Harcourt refinery and truck-out of Premium Motor Spirit, fondly called petrol, on Tuesday were false.

Reacting via a statement on Friday, November 29, the NNPCL Chief Corporate Communications Officer, Olufemi Soneye, said Mgbere’s assertions were “a crass display of ignorance”, adding that the community leader does not have any knowledge about the workings of the Port Harcourt refinery.

Soneye stated: “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 against the gantry of the Old Port Harcourt Refinery. This betrays his scant knowledge of the operations of the refinery.

“The Old and New Port Harcourt Refineries have since been integrated with one single terminal for products load-out. They share common utilities like power and storage tanks. This means that storage tanks and loading gantry which he claimed belongs to the New Port-Harcourt Refinery can also receive products from the Old Port Harcourt Refinery.

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“The same person who claimed that the Old Port Harcourt Refinery has its own separate loading gantry from that of the New Port Harcourt Refinery further went on to contradict himself by saying that the PMS that was loaded out 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 gantry of the New Port-Harcourt Refinery for 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!

“There are a number of other wild claims made by the man, one of which was that the refinery was producing 1.4 million barrels per day. The nameplate capacity of the refinery is 60,000 barrels of oil per day. It is currently producing at 90 per cent throughput which translates to Straight-Run Gasoline (Naphtha) blended into 1.4 million litres of PMS, aside 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 display of ignorance.”

The Star