The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has clarified that the newly activated 60, 000 barrels per day old Port Harcourt is currently working at 90 per cent capacity, and not 70 per cent as stated by The Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN).

PETROAN had on Thursday said the refinery is currently operating at 70 per cent of its installed capacity, with plans to ramp up to 90 per cent.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) on Tuesday announced that the Port Harcourt refinery has commenced crude oil refining.

In a statement titled ?Halt the rumours: Port Harcourt old refinery is up and running, producing by-products of crude oil?, and signed by its spokesperson on Thursday, Joseph Obele, PETROAN noted that as part of its oversight function, it has direct access to the plant on the authorisation of management.

The statement further read, ?It is more important to state here that the functional plant at operation is the old refinery with the capacity of 60,000 barrels per day, while the new port Harcourt refinery with the capacity of 200,000 barrels per day is still under rehabilitation which is due to commence production soon as announced by the management of NNPCL. Both Refineries are within the same complex at Alesa Eleme in Rivers State.

However, in a statement signed by NNPCL?s spokesperson, Olufemi Soneye on Friday, said although the nameplate of the refinery is 60, 000 barrels of oil per day, it is now functioning at 90 per cent capacity.

?There are a number of other wild claims made by the man, one of which was that the refinery was producing 1.4 million barrels per day. The nameplate capacity of the refinery is 60,000 barrels of oil per day. It is currently producing at 90 per cent throughput which translates to Straight-Run Gasoline (Naptha) blended into 1.4million litres of PMS, asidefrom other products like diesel and kerosene.?

The company was also addressing an allegation by one of the community persons, Timothy Mgbere, that the refinery was not worth celebrating, as it was merely blending and had pushed out old stock.

?The attention of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) has been drawn to a video clip of one Timothy Mgbere, a self-acclaimed ?community person? who alleged that the much-publicised restreaming of the Port Harcourt and truck-out of Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) which held earlier in the week were all false.

?We would have not bothered to reply to him considering that all his assertions were a crass display of ignorance which is consistent with his claim of being a ?community person? who does not necessarily have any knowledge about the workings of the Port Harcourt Refinery. But the need to set the records straight and not to mislead the public has constrained us to clarify as follows:

?He claimed that the Old Port Harcourt Refinery was only operating skeletally and was not processing PMS. His proof was that the PMS truck-out was done at the gantry of the New Port Harcourt Refinery as against the gantry of the Old Port Harcourt Refinery. This betrays his scant knowledge of the operations of the refinery. The Old and New Port Harcourt Refineries have since been integrated with one single terminal for product load-out. They share common utilities like power and storage tanks. This means that storage tanks and loading gantry which he claimed belong to the New Port-Harcourt Refinery can also receive products from the Old Port-Harcourt Refinery.

?The same person who claimed that the Old Port Harcourt Refinery has its own separate loading gantry from that of the New Port Harcourt Refinery further went on to contradict himself by saying that the PMS that was loaded out from the supposed loading gantry of the New Port Harcourt Refinery was ?old stock? from the Old Port Harcourt Refinery. So, how did the purported ?old stock? move from the Old Port Harcourt Refinery to the loading gantry of the New Port Harcourt Refinery?

?Going by the flawed argument of the so-called ?community person?, ?old PMS stock? from the Old Port Harcourt Refinery can be moved to the loading gantry of the New Port-Harcourt Refinery for show, but newly produced PMS from the Old Port-Harcourt Refinery can only be loaded at its own dedicated gantry. This is nothing but ignorance on full display!? the statement said in part.

NNPCL called on the public to disregard the claims of the ?self-acclaimed community person?, which it described as ?obviously borne out of sheer mischief and blatant display of ignorance.? (Channels TV)

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