Less than a month after it seemed to begin manufacturing, the Port Harcourt Refining Company has ceased operations.
Our journalist, who visited the refinery on Thursday, December 19, 2024, noted that the lifting of Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) had ceased.
According to Saturday PUNCH, fuel lifting ceased last Friday, December 13, because the new Port Harcourt refinery’s 18-arm loading dock remained empty.
But around 18 vehicles littered the stretch of busy road going to the refinery, and nine trucks were visible inside the parking lot, but the loading dock remained vacant.
The depot, which is often a hive of activity with tankers vying for space in the parking lot, was a ghost of itself, with no vehicular or human activity related to operations.
$1.5 billion celebration.
Recall that the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Mele Kyari, inaugurated the 60,000-barrel-per-day production capacity facility on Tuesday, November 26, 2024, to much fanfare. This followed the approval of $1.5 billion in March 2021 for the facility’s renovation.
However, fewer than ten trucks of gasoline were hauled that day, despite popular rumors that about 200 trucks transported gasoline out of the bay.
Our reporter further said that as soon as Kyari returned to Abuja, everything reverted to normal, with stakeholders alleging that the fuel removed during the inauguration was old stock from the storage tank.
When Saturday PUNCH first visited the refinery three weeks ago, it noticed that the loading area was vacant, with no products being lifted.
In reaction to the revelation, the Petroleum Goods Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria stated that operations had been cut back to allow for the calibration of meters at the loading bay and the dewatering of old stock, which had to be emptied in order to receive newly refined goods.
Tanker drivers returned a fortnight ago to resume loading.
Journalists were also given a guided tour of the refinery by its Managing Director, Ibrahim Onoja.
Onoja remarked, “The plant is operational, and we are trucking out our products.” We have extensively renovated this factory and replaced the majority of the equipment.
“The pump, instrumentation, and wires are all brand-new. So we’ve done a huge overhaul and update to the facility.”
Next, there was a significant improvement, with around 11 trucks lifting items, and it was much better the next day.
However, when Saturday PUNCH came on Thursday, it was discovered that manufacturing had ceased one week ago.
A few drivers were observed dozing in their vehicles, doing nothing.
One of them, who spoke Hausa, stated that the lifting of PMS will continue next Monday.
