Old P’Harcourt Refinery Working At 90%, Not 70%, NNPCL

The Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN) stated that the newly activated 60, 000 barrels per day old Port Harcourt is currently operating at 90 percent capacity, not 70 percent, as stated by The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.

The refinery is currently operating at 70% of its installed capacity, according to PETROAN, with plans to increase that percentage to 90%.

The Port Harcourt refinery has started crude oil refining, according to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) on Tuesday.

In a statement titled “Halt the rumours: Port Harcourt old refinery is up and running, producing by-products of crude oil”, and signed by its spokesperson on Thursday, Joseph Obele, PETROAN noted that as part of its oversight function, it has direct access to the plant on the authorisation of management.

Further, the statement continued, “It is more important to note that the current functional plant is the old refinery, which can produce 60,000 barrels per day, while the new port Harcourt refinery, which can produce 200,000 barrels per day, is still in process, and is scheduled to start producing soon, as the management of NNPCL announced. At Alesa Eleme in Rivers State, both refineries are located in the same complex.

However, in a statement signed by NNPCL’s spokesperson, Olufemi Soneye on Friday, said although the nameplate of the refinery is 60, 000 barrels of oil per day, it is now functioning at 90 per cent capacity.

The man made a number of other outrageous claims, among them that the refinery was producing 1. 4 million barrels per day. The refinery’s daily oil production capacity is 60,000 barrels. It is currently producing 90% throughput, which results in Straight-Run Gasoline (Naptha) blended into 1. 4million litres of PMS, asidefrom  other products like diesel and kerosene. ”

The company was also responding to an allegation made by one of the residents, Timothy Mgbere, that the refinery was merely blending and had outgrown old stock.

READ ALSO: Contrary To Speculations, P/Harcourt Refinery Currently Operating At 70% – PETROAN

A video clip of one self-described “community person,” Timothy Mgbere, who claimed that the much-reported restreaming of the Port Harcourt and the truck-out of Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) earlier in the week were all false, has attracted the attention of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd).

We would have never bothered to respond to him because we thought it was a blatant display of ignorance, which was in line with his claim to be a ‘community person’ who had no knowledge of how the Port Harcourt Refinery operates. However, we must clarify as follows because we must set the record straight and avoid misleading the public:

He asserted that PMS processing was not possible because the Old Port Harcourt Refinery only had skeletal operations. His proof was that the PMS truck-out was carried out at the New Port Harcourt Refinery rather than the Old Port Harcourt Refinery. His lack of knowledge of how the refinery works betrays this. Since then, the Old and New Port Harcourt refineries have been linked together to a single terminal for product loading. Power and storage tanks are two common utilities. This means that products from the Old Port-Harcourt Refinery can also be received from storage tanks and loading gantries, which he claimed are New Port-Harcourt Refineries.

The same person who asserted that the Old Port Harcourt Refinery has its own distinct loading gantry from that of the New Port Harcourt Refinery went on to refute this claim by saying that the PMS was “old stock” from the Old Port Harcourt Refinery. How then did the alleged “old stock” move from the New Port Harcourt Refinery’s loading gantry?

According to the so-called “community person,” “old PMS stock” from the Old Port Harcourt Refinery can be moved to the New Port-Harcourt Refinery’s loading gantry for show, but newly produced PMS from the Old Port-Harcourt Refinery can only be loaded at its own dedicated gantry. Nothing more than total ignorance on display! ” the statement said in part.

Source: Channels TV