Less than a month after the Port Harcourt Refining Company resumed operations with fanfare, the facility is out of commission again.
Saturday Punch visited the refinery on Thursday, December 19, 2024, and found that the loading of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), commonly known as petrol, had stopped.
Observations showed that the 18-arm loading bay of the newly rehabilitated refinery was completely deserted.
The publication learnt that the lifting of petrol stopped a week earlier, on Friday, December 13. While 18 trucks were parked along the busy road leading to the refinery, nine others were stationed in the parking yard. However, the loading bay, typically bustling with activity, was eerily empty, with no visible operations or tanker movements.
The refinery was reopened on November 26, 2024, in a grand ceremony led by Mele Kyari, CEO of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited. The event marked the culmination of a $1.5 billion rehabilitation project approved in March 2021. The re-commissioning was celebrated with much fanfare, and some petrol was lifted to the cheers of an excited crowd.
However, contrary to claims that 200 trucks were loaded during the inauguration, less than 10 trucks were actually filled. Shortly after Kyari returned to Abuja, the facility reportedly reverted to its prior state, with stakeholders alleging that the petrol lifted during the ceremony was old stock from storage tanks.
Three weeks ago, the loading bay was observed to be inactive and empty. The Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria attributed this to the calibration of equipment and the removal of water from old fuel stocks to prepare for new supplies.
Two weeks later, operations briefly resumed as trucks began loading fuel again. During a media tour led by the refinery’s Managing Director, Ibrahim Onoja, he stated, “The plant is running, and we are trucking out our products. We have carried out an extensive revamp of this plant and changed most of the equipment. The pump and instrumentation, the cables are all brand new. So what we have done here is a massive change and upgrade of the plant.”
Following his remarks, operations showed slight improvement, with approximately 11 trucks loaded with fuel in one day and an increase the following day. However, production came to a complete halt again one week ago.
Currently, only a handful of truck drivers remain at the facility, most of them seen sleeping in their vehicles. The Punch reported one driver mentioning he had heard that loading might resume on Monday, though he expressed skepticism about the claim.
Meanwhile, a petroleum product marketer, Mr. Dappa Jubobaraye, criticized the state of the country’s refineries, alleging that no meaningful production had taken place since the inauguration. “It was all just for show,” he remarked.
At the refinery, the number of workers and visitors was noticeably sparse, with security personnel, dressed in black trousers and blue shirts, stationed around the depot and loading bay. With no activity to monitor, they appeared to pass the time in conversation.
He stated, “It was intended to deceive Nigerians that the refinery is working and that is why they came up with that show. That day, only about four or five trucks loaded products.
“The loading meter was not calibrated yet before they started operation. Of the 18 loading arms at the bay only three are working and they have leakages. So, they have been trying to load three, four, five trucks, sometimes 10 just to show that they are working while they are not working.
“Since Mele Kyari came and left, the independent marketers have yet to load products from this depot because the NNPC is yet to fix prices for them to buy tickets and start loading products. They are only loading them to their own mega stations.
“The situation right now is that loading of PMS is not taking place because they don’t have the intention to make this place work. It is just to deceive the people.
“If you come into this place (depot), you will see trucks packed and think that loading is on; but the truth is that they are not working. Some tanker drivers have gone because they can’t come and waste time here.”
He continued, “How can you come here with the hope of loading and you stay here with your truck for two weeks, for what? Before the work stopped last week, they were loading up to 10, 15 but below 20.
“Ordinary one of the arms in the loading bay can load up to 20 to 30 trucks in a day. But for now, they are using only three arms out of the 18 loading arms inside the bay and the three are just for PMS alone. They have not started loading DPK (kerosene) and AGO (diesel). And kerosene is what concerns the ordinary more.”
