The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has clarified that the recently restarted 60,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) old Port Harcourt Refinery is running at 90% of its installed capacity, countering claims by the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN).
On Thursday, PETROAN had stated that the refinery was operating at 70% capacity with plans to ramp up to 90%. However, NNPCL’s spokesperson, Olufemi Soneye, refuted this in a statement issued on Friday, confirming the facility’s 90% operational capacity.
“The nameplate capacity of the refinery is 60,000 barrels per day. It is currently functioning at 90% throughput, which translates to Straight-Run Gasoline (Naphtha) blended into 1.4 million litres of PMS, in addition to other products like diesel and kerosene,” Soneye explained.
This clarification followed PETROAN’s Thursday statement, which highlighted the organization’s oversight access to the plant. PETROAN also noted that while the old Port Harcourt Refinery is operational, the new facility with a 200,000-bpd capacity is still undergoing rehabilitation.
Responding to allegations by Timothy Mgbere, a self-described community representative, that the refinery’s operations were overstated, NNPCL dismissed the claims as inaccurate and misleading.
“The attention of NNPCL has been drawn to a video by Timothy Mgbere alleging that the recently announced restreaming of the Port Harcourt Refinery was false. These assertions reflect a lack of understanding of the refinery’s operations,” the company said.
NNPCL emphasized that the old and new Port Harcourt refineries share integrated systems, including common utilities, storage tanks, and a single terminal for product loading.
” He 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 product load-out. They share common utilities like power and storage tanks. This means that 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.
“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!” the statement said in part.
NNPCL called on the public to disregard the claims of the “self-acclaimed community person”, which it described as “obviously borne out of sheer mischief and blatant display of ignorance.”
Post A Comment: