NNPC denies selling old stock of petroleum products from PH refinery to marketers

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited says it did not load old stock of petroleum products from the rehabilitated old Port Harcourt refinery.

Timothy Mgbere, the secretary of the Alesa community stakeholders, had alleged that the recent re-streaming of the refinery and truck loading of petrol were false.

In a statement on Friday by Femi Soneye, NNPC’s spokesperson, the energy firm described the assertion as a “crass display of ignorance” which is consistent with his claim of being a “community person”.

“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 statement reads.

“The Old and New Port Harcourt Refineries have since been integrated with one single terminal for products load-out. They share common utilities like power and storage tanks.

“This means that storage tanks and loading gantry which he claimed belongs 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.”

The NNPC further asked how the purported “old stock” moved from the old refinery to the loading gantry of the new one.

“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!” NNPC said.

“There are a number of other wild claims made by the man, one of which was that the refinery was producing 1.4million barrels per day.”

‘PH REFINERY PRODUCING AT 90% THROUGHPUT’

NNPC said the nameplate capacity of the refinery is 60,000barrels of oil per day, adding that it is currently producing at 90 percent throughput — translating to straight-run gasoline (naphtha) blended into 1.4 million litres of petrol, aside from other products like diesel and kerosene.

“We call on the general public to disregard the claims of the self-acclaimed ‘community person’ which are obviously borne out of sheer mischief and blatant display of ignorance,” the oil firm said.

On November 26, the energy firm said the Port Harcourt refinery officially commenced crude oil processing and subsequently began loading of petroleum products into trucks.