Timothy Mgbere, Secretary of the Alesa community stakeholders, has alleged that the petroleum products recently loaded from the revived Port Harcourt Refinery were not newly refined but rather petrol that had been stored in the facility’s tanks for the past three years.
Speaking on Arise TV on Thursday, Mgbere accused the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) of misleading Nigerians about the refinery’s operations.
He also claimed that the refinery only loaded six trucks on Tuesday, contrary to earlier reports that 200 trucks would transport petrol daily.
Mgbere dismissed NNPCL’s assertion that the refinery has begun processing 1.4 million barrels of crude per day, stating:
“I’ll acknowledge that they have started some activity, but it’s inaccurate to claim, as the Head of Corporate Communication for NNPCL, Femi Soneye, said, that they are producing 1.4 million barrels per day. That is not true.
“As an organization managing the oil industry on behalf of Nigerians, they should refrain from sharing misleading information.
“They went to the refinery because the storage facility contained old stock—petroleum products that have been there for over three years.
“What they did was release that stock, load six trucks, and present it to Nigerians as production from the old refinery. That is simply not true.
“The product loaded was not newly refined at the facility.”
It will be recalled that NNPCL announced on Tuesday that the Port Harcourt Refinery had commenced petroleum product production and begun dispatching products. Presidential spokesperson Sunday Dare had stated that 200 trucks were prepared to load products from the refinery.