The Port Harcourt Refinery has officially resumed full operations after temporarily scaling down its activities. The announcement was made by the Managing Director of the refinery, Mr. Ibrahim Onoja, following a facility tour on Sunday, December 1, 2024. Onoja confirmed that the refinery had resumed the distribution of refined petroleum products, including Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), kerosene, and diesel.
This marks a significant milestone for the refinery, which had undergone extensive upgrades to enhance its efficiency and production capacity. Mr. Onoja explained that critical equipment, including pumps and cables, had been replaced to improve the plant’s reliability. “The plant is running and we are trucking out our products,” he stated.
Despite the positive announcement, controversy continues to surround the refinery’s operations, with some stakeholders expressing skepticism about the claims made by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited. On November 26, 2024, the NNPC had revealed that the refinery was producing at 70% of its installed capacity following rehabilitation. However, some concerns arose when the refinery was reported to have only loaded six trucks on November 27, 2024, far below the 200 trucks expected to be evacuated daily, fueling doubts about the refinery’s full operational capacity.
Mr. Moyi Maidunama, Director of Operations at the Nigeria Pipeline Storage Company (NPSC) Ltd, acknowledged that there had been a temporary reduction in production to address technical issues, particularly the need to improve the delivery capacity of the facility. He explained that the reduction was not a complete halt but part of ongoing improvements, particularly to make more loading arms operational for the evacuation process.
Terminal manager Mr. Worlu Joel confirmed that the refinery had resumed loading PMS, kerosene, and diesel. Despite this, he expressed concerns over the slow turnout of tanker drivers, stating, “If we have up to 100 trucks today, we will evacuate them in five hours. It’s no longer our problem, it’s the tanker drivers.”
Earlier in November, a community leader from the Alesa community, Timothy Mgbere, raised concerns about the authenticity of the refinery’s output. He claimed that products loaded from the refinery were not freshly refined but were leftovers stored in the facility’s tanks for the past three years. However, refinery officials have clarified that operations were not entirely halted but temporarily scaled down to facilitate improvements.
The ongoing debates over the refinery’s operations highlight the challenges and scrutiny surrounding the resumption of full-scale refining in Nigeria. Nonetheless, the refinery’s management is confident that the issues will be resolved soon, ensuring continuous production and distribution of refined products.
