For many years, the Port Harcourt refinery has been moribund. Billions of dollars were spent to revive it all to no avail. In March 2021, the Federal Executive Council under President Muhammadu Buhari approved a fresh $1.5 billion for the rehabilitation of the refinery. This was after the government had said that it would no longer spend money on the nation’s ailing refineries.
While the back and forth on the refinery continued, Nigerians groaned in pain as the price of fuel increased arbitrarily. The removal of subsidy escalated the situation, extending the sufferings of Nigerians and throwing more people into poverty.
Then the breather came last week Tuesday that the refinery had resumed production. There was wild jubilation. The excitement was expected. The resumption of activities will bring about a healthy competition, it will encourage price war with the privately-owned Dangote Refinery, and Nigerians will be the biggest beneficiaries of it.
But less than a week after the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), made the announcement, the jubilation that greeted it has been dashed, with fresh controversy trailing it.
There are claims that, contrary to what the NNPCL told the world, the refinery was yet to commence production. A leader of Alesa, the host community of the facility, Timothy Mgbere, had on a national TV programme stated that the refinery was not producing fuel. He claimed that the old Port Harcourt Refinery was only operating skeletally and was not processing any product, stressing that the Premium Motor Spirit trucked-out was done at the gantry of the new refinery as against the gantry of the old refinery.
Although the NNPCL, through its spokesman, Olufemi Soneye, denied the allegation and accused Mgbere of crass ignorance of how a refinery runs, Soneye said the old and new Port Harcourt refineries have since been integrated with one single terminal for product load-out.
While the explanation by the NNPCL spokesperson should ordinarily bring some relief, there are pointers to the fact that all may not be well with the refinery. Our investigation revealed that there is no ongoing activity on site, as the refinery is still undergoing calibration as of last week. So, the claim by the company that 200 petrol trucks were loading daily from the plant seems to be false. Our findings indicated that the said trucks were being loaded with old products in the storage tanks known as "dead stock”.
We also understand that the refinery is still at the level of manual operation as against the electronically operated system that is now a global standard. The manual system experts say it is no longer in use as it is outdated. If this is true, then it is not only disheartening but sad.
To unravel all of these mysteries, we urge President Bola Tinubu to set up a panel made up of industry experts with proven integrity to unravel the true state of the Port Harcourt Refinery. This will save the nation a whole lot and put an end to this monumental national embarrassment.
For us, we do not want to believe that the Port Harcourt refinery has become the cash cow for a certain cabal. We are trying not to suspect that the facility is another Nigeria Air. It is therefore important to clear the air on the status of the refinery.
