Port Harcourt Refinery not working NNPCL not telling Nigeria the truth – Host Community – Crime Channels
Port Harcourt Refinery not working NNPCL not telling Nigeria the truth – Host Community
The Secretary of the Alesa Community Stakeholders, Timothy Mgbere, has raised serious concerns over the recent claims surrounding the Port Harcourt Refinery.
He contends that the petroleum products recently dispatched from the facility were not newly refined but instead consisted of petrol that had been stored in the refinery’s tanks for the past three years.
Appearing as a guest on Arise TV this Thursday, Mgbere accused the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) of misleading the public about the refinery’s revival.
He specifically pointed out discrepancies between NNPCL’s claims and the actual operations at the plant.
Furthermore, Mgbere challenged reports suggesting that 200 trucks would be receiving fuel daily from the refinery. He revealed that, in reality, only six trucks were loaded on Tuesday.
Additionally, he dismissed NNPCL’s assertion that the refinery began operations with a crude processing capacity of 1.4 million barrels per day, calling it an exaggeration.
“I will give them the credit that at least they have started something, but not to say, according to the Head of Corporate Communication of the NNPC Limited, Femi Soneye, like it is in the media that they are already producing 1.4 million barrels per day. That’s not the case. That’s not true.
“As an agency that is holding the oil industry in trust for Nigerians, they shouldn’t put out some of this information that is not true.
“They went there because the storage facility for the old refinery had some stock— old stock that has been there for over three years.
“And so what they had, they released that stock, and then loaded six trucks and then televised it to Nigerians that it is the production from the old refinery. That’s not true.
“The product was not a new refined product from the old refinery,” he stated.
On Tuesday, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) officially announced the start of petroleum product production at the Port Harcourt Refinery.
Following this, the company revealed that it had begun transporting the products.
Also on Tuesday, Sunday Dare, a presidential spokesperson, stated that approximately 200 trucks were on standby to load petroleum products from the refinery.
