Host community representative speaks on Port Harcourt refinery’s full operation claim

The Nigerian government said the Port Harcourt refinery began 70 per cent opearton.

Secretary, Alesa Stakeholders, Port Harcourt Refinery’s host community, Timothy Mgbere, has disputed the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL Ltd ‘s claim of commencement of substantial operations of the Port Harcourt Refinery.

Mr Mgbere, who appeared on the Morning Show on the Arise News Television on Wednesday, said only skeletal operations were in full swing at the refinery.

“I will give them the credit that at least they have started something. But not to say that according to the chief head of corporate communication of the NNPC Ltd, they have put it on the media that they are already producing 1,400,000 barrels per day. That’s not the case. That’s not true.”

He also said NNPCL Ltd had only put on a show, with no representation from the traditional chiefs from the refinery’s host community in the Alesa community.

“I don’t want to use the word lie, but as an agency that is holding the oil industry in trust for Nigerians, they shouldn’t put out some of this information that is not true. The true picture of what happened on Tuesday is that the NNPCL has been under pressure to televise to Nigerians that everything is okay and then that the old refinery has started functioning.”

Mr Mgbere, who is also a former staff member of the NNPC, said that he had observed that only four trucks had been loaded from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

“Manual system loads a truck for about 45 minutes. So fully automated, fully rehabilitated, and then you tell us it’s 70 per cent operational, and then you’re loading four trucks for the whole day. One truck staying under the loading gantry for more than six to seven hours?” He questioned.

The presidency had on Tuesday issued a statement on X, disclosing that 200 trucks were expected to load petroleum trucks from the refinery daily.

On 26 November, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL Ltd) announced in a statement that the Port Harcourt Refinery had commenced operations after several years of being inactive.

The Chief Corporate Communications Officer of the NNPCL, Olufemi Soneye who made the disclosure, said that the refinery was operating at 70 per cent of its installed capacity.

After a series of promises and deadlines by the government had fell through from 2018 during then President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to October 2024, the recent announcement of the commencement of operation in the Port Harcourt refinery instilled hope in Nigerians towards less dependency on the country’s importation of petrol despite being a producer of crude.

Energy expert encourages transparency

Mr Mgbere’s claim conflicts with that of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Engagement, Fredrick Nwabufo, who claimed to have witnessed the refinery operating at 70 per cent of its full capacity.

Energy expert, Nick Agule, who also appeared as a guest alongside Mr Mgbere on the Arise TV show, encouraged the NNPCL Ltd to be transparent with Nigerians to clear the controversy that had ensued.

“To be honest, for me, I would like more clarity. The NNPCL needs to take journalists into this plant. They need to show journalists exactly what they are doing so that these journalists can come back to us as Nigerians and say, yes, indeed, we have seen that refining processes have convinced us that the old protocol refinery and these are the products that are being produced.”