A group of Civil Society Organisations under the aegis of Coalition for Accountability and Transparency in Energy Sector (CATES), has confirmed reports making the rounds that the Port Harcourt Refinery is not rolling out petrol but a blended petroleum product.
In its statement on Wednesday, a spokesperson for the coalition, Dr. Linus Ikwur, said despite warnings not to turn the Port Harcourt refinery to a blending plant, the NNPCL has gone ahead to so do.
“The NNPCL was given money to turn Port Harcourt into a full fledged refinery. But now they want to turn the place into a blending plant, despite the public outcry on the dangers of having a blending plant in the region that is already suffering environmental degredation.
“Nigerians paid for a refinery and not a blending plant. This is a clear case of what I ordered vs what I got.
“There’s a need for great accountability, transparency and probity in ensuring that the refineries operate at 100% capacity and not as a blending plant”, the statement said.
Dr. Ikwur adds, “to us, it did not come as a surprise, because we saw it coming and we have raised enough alarms, so that it could be averted, but the authority kept calm, until the NNPCL perfected its plan to convert our heritage refinery into a blending plant. But we were highly disappointed, that the NNPCL misled Nigerians, including President Bola Tinubu into believing that the Port Harcourt refinery had come back to live.
“It took the great effort of the the media, Sahara Reporters in particular, to confirm our claims that Nigerians were indeed celebrating a blending plant, and not a refinery. Nigerians are too wise for that grand deception and Mr. President should not fall for that kind of cheap attempt to score political goals by the NNPCL.
“Mele Kyari and his cohorts should stop misleading the President. They should rather come out and explain how the over N17 trillion expended on our local refineries went and why is it that none of the Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna refineries is working, after receiving such a humongous funding”.
The NNPC posted on its X handle on Tuesday, that the NNPC Ltd would deliver Port Harcourt Refinery as the plant begins truckout of products.
However, an online newspaper, Sahara Reporters, burst the bubble when it reported on the same Tuesday, based on insider information, that what is being trucked out was not petrol.
It disclosed that NNPCL bought “Cracked C5 petroleum resins” and blended it with other products including Naphtha to sell to the Nigerian public as though the refinery processed it.
“The plant is running but it is the old one of 60,000bpd capacity but you can’t get PMS from it except diesel. The part that produces PMS is yet to start.
“If you hear they are trucking out PMS from the depot, know it is a lie. They bought Crack C5 from Indorama company in Port Harcourt and blended it with Naphtha to sell to the public”, the source told Sahara Reporters.
After the exposé, the NNPCL owned up.
Its spokesman, Mr. Olufemi Soneye said:
“It is worth noting that the refinery incorporates crack C5, a blending component from our sister company, Indorama Petrochemicals (formerly Eleme Petrochemicals), to produce gasoline that meets required specifications.
“Blending is a standard practice in refineries globally, as no single unit can produce gasoline that fully complies with any country’s standards without such processes. Additionally, we have made substantial progress on the new Port Harcourt Refinery, which will begin operations soon without prior announcements”.
