The initial fanfare surrounding the resumption of operations at the Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC) has quickly evaporated, leaving many Nigerians uncertain about the refinery’s future.
A visit by Saturday PUNCH to the refinery on Friday revealed a lack of activity at the site. Workers on location claimed that the refinery was undergoing calibration, a process that could take until next week to complete.
The Port Harcourt Refinery, which has faced numerous delays and missed deadlines for resuming full operations, had sparked renewed hopes when the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), Melee Kyari, inaugurated a new plant at the Area 5 terminal on Tuesday. It was claimed that 200 petrol trucks were loading daily from the plant.
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However, this announcement was met with widespread skepticism as reports began circulating that the trucks were being loaded with old products stored in the refinery’s tanks. Upon visiting the refinery’s Area 5, Punch correspondent found no visible signs of activity.
An official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, explained that the trucks were filled with “dead stock,” or outdated products, left over from the refinery’s previous shutdown between 2015 and 2016.
“Before the refinery was shut down, we had dead stock left in the tank, including large quantities of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), kerosene (DPK), and Automated Gas Oil (diesel),” the source said. “During the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt Refinery, these products were evacuated from the tanks and stored.”
The official further explained that much of the refined petrol was “off-spec” and required separation from water to meet the desired quality standards. “But the DPK is still in large quantities. It has not been pushed from the tank for commercial use,” the source added. “So, the product that was loaded was dead stock, the old product that had been left in the system. After these stocks are used up, they will clean the tanks, remove all the debris, and pump in fresh product.”
The worker also raised concerns about the refinery’s manual operations, which, he argued, could not match the efficiency of modern digital systems. “What they are trying to do at the Port Harcourt Refinery is manual, which cannot match the new digital pumps. Most of the pumps used for the event were refurbished,” he said.
During Kyari’s visit on Tuesday, seven trucks were prepared for loading, but only five were actually filled with petrol.
At the inauguration, the Chairman of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Taken Ikpaki, expressed optimism about the refinery’s operations. He stated that more trucks would be coming in to load products in the coming days.
However, contrary to these expectations, the number of trucks visiting the refinery has since dwindled. When Saturday PUNCH visited the site around 1:30 pm on Friday, most workers and drivers appeared idle as no machinery was operational. Nine trucks were seen parked, but the loading bays, numbered from one to 18, were empty and deserted, with some workers lying down.
One worker, who declined to be named, explained the lack of loading activity: “They are de-watering, removing the water under the PMS. Maybe there will be loading after that, but we don’t know what time today.”
Another worker at the loading bay confirmed that calibration was the reason for the delay: “They are calibrating the meters,” he said.
A resident of Alode in Eleme Local Government Area of Rivers State, who identified himself only as Osaro, questioned the refinery’s progress. “After that ceremony with Mele Kyari where they said the refinery had started operations and loading was taking place, what happened afterwards? They continued loading on air, that is, on the pages of newspapers and social media,” Osaro said.
When contacted for a response, Dr. Joseph Obelle, the National Public Relations Officer of the Petroleum Product Retail Outlet Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN), attributed the inactivity to ongoing calibration work. “They are calibrating the loading pumps. They will be done today,” Obelle said.
Meanwhile, the Senate Committee on Petroleum visited the refinery on Thursday for a facility tour, though the outcome of their visit had not been made public at the time of writing.
Calls and text messages to NNPC’s spokesperson, Olufemi Soneye, went unanswered. However, in a statement, the NNPC denied claims by an Alesa community leader, Timothy Mgbere, who had suggested that the Port Harcourt refinery was not producing fuel. Soneye accused Mgbere of a fundamental misunderstanding of how a refinery operates.
