The Managing Director of the Port Harcourt Refining Company, Ibrahim Onoja, has rejected claims that production at the refinery was halted after its inauguration last week.
Onoja clarified that the refinery remains operational following the flag-off event by the Group CEO of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Mele Kyari.
At the inauguration, Kyari emphasized that the refinery would be loading up to 200 trucks of petroleum products daily, marking a significant step in Nigeria’s efforts to boost domestic product availability.
The initial excitement surrounding the reopening of the PHRC was marred by rumours suggesting that production had been halted and that the resumption of operations was staged.
However, during a recent tour of the facility in Eleme, Rivers State alongside journalists, it was clear that activities were continuing with iver 10 trucks seen loading petroleum products at the facility’s bay, effectively dispelling the claims of a shutdown
It was reported that at the Old PHRC Area 5 process plant, there was an extensive rehabilitation and upgrade of facility, with refining also ongoing.
Onoja who led journalists on the tour, explained that “the plant is running and trucking out products”.
Similar, the Terminal Manager at the Port Harcourt depot, Molokwuu Joel, confirmed that operations at the facility are progressing smoothly.
He highlighted that in under 15 minutes, the loading bay successfully dispatched three 45,000-litre tankers.
He said, “This is PPMC loading arm. We have 11 loading bays that are functional, but because it has a huge capacity to deliver, we are using three at the moment.
“Out of the three loading bays, each one has the capacity of loading three trucks in 15 minutes. A truck is 45, 000 litres minimum. We have the ones of 60, 000 litres. Already, we have loaded more than 10 trucks. So before the close of work today (Sunday), just in the next one hour, we are going to evacuate minimum of 15 trucks.”
Molokwuu further disclosed that there is a surplus of petroleum products available at the refinery.
He added that petroleum marketers had been notified and invited to access the facility to procure high-quality products.
“We have our loading arms operational and we have been begging them (petroleum marketers) to come in since yesterday but because today is weekend that is why they have not turned up. If you give us 100 trucks today we will evacuate them in less than 5 hours.
“So it is not our problem if there are no loading trucks, it is the tanker drivers’ problem. We have been begging them since yesterday to come around and take the products but they didn’t turn up, it was just this morning after pleading with them that they came,” Molokwuu stated.
Meanwhile, the Executive Director, Operations, of the Nigeria Pipelines and Storage Company Limited, Moyi Maidunama, said, “As you are seeing here, you are witnessing the truck load-out, we have been doing this since morning.
“We are evacuating the refined products from the refinery and this is obviously going to be a continuous process. We have done a couple of trucks today and intend to do many more today.”
Maidunama noted that operations at the Port Harcourt Refining Company had not been stopped, but rather temporarily reduced to accommodate necessary improvements.
Maidunama added “Though there is a lot more than we can do in terms of getting more loading arms operational, but we are managing due to the number of trucks they we have available today. So we are using a few loading arms to execute the number of trucks we have today.”
The Chief Security Officer of Alesa Eleme, Dibia Isaiah, in response to negative reports about the state of the Port Harcourt Refining Company, dismissed the claims, affirming “Everybody is seeing it live and direct that production is on. I suspect it was the enemy of this rehabilitation that is going that is peddling the rumours.
“I am one of the leaders from the host community, I have loaded four trucks this morning. Now, we are loading tomorrow, there is no time we will not load. This time is a very busy period us. I wonder how people are giving out fake information just to run down the management. It is not good. I want to urge Nigerians to disregard such rumours.”
