Kehinde Fajobi
The Secretary of the Alesa community stakeholders, Timothy Mgbere, has claimed that petroleum products loaded from the recently reopened Port Harcourt Refinery were not freshly refined but rather old stock that had been stored at the facility for over three years.
Mgbere made this assertion during an interview on Arise TV, monitored on Thursday, where he also alleged that only six trucks were loaded on Tuesday, despite announcements that 200 trucks of products would be dispatched daily.
The Alesa community, one of the major hosts of the refinery in Eleme, Rivers State, is directly impacted by the refinery’s operations.
On Tuesday, the 60,000-barrel-capacity Port Harcourt Refinery resumed operations after years of dormancy.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) had described the facility’s reopening as a success, claiming it was operating at 70% of its installed capacity.
NNPCL also announced expected daily outputs, including 1.4 million litres of petrol, 1.5 million litres of diesel, and 900,000 litres of kerosene.
However, Mgbere dismissed the fanfare surrounding the reopening as a “mere show,” describing it as an attempt to create a false narrative about the refinery’s actual production capacity.
“I can tell you on authority as a community person, that what happened on Tuesday was just a mere show at the Port Harcourt depot,” Mgbere said.
He added, “The Port Harcourt refinery, we call it area five—that is the old refinery—is merely in skeletal operation. Some units were recently brought up, but not the entire unit of the old refinery is functional, as we speak.”
He accused NNPCL of exaggerating the refinery’s production capabilities.
“I will give them credit that at least they have started something, but not to say, according to the Head of Corporate Communication of NNPCL, Femi Soneye, that they are already producing 1.4 million barrels per day. That’s not the case. That’s not true,” he stated.
Mgbere also alleged that NNPCL relied on existing stock in the storage tanks for the trucks loaded on Tuesday.
“The product that was loaded was old stock that has been there for over three years. It was not newly refined,” he said.
He urged Nigerians to demand transparency from the NNPCL, adding, “They don’t need to believe me, but let it be on record that it was only six trucks that were used to calibrate the new loading gantry. The product was not a new refined product from the old refinery.”
Mgbere further called on the NNPCL to stop disseminating misleading information, stressing that the truth about the refinery’s current state must be made known to Nigerians.