The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd.) has said the re-streaming of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) and associated truck-outs were not fabricated as being speculated by people that lack knowledge of the operations of the refinery.
The clarification followed recent allegations surrounding the operations of the Port Harcourt Refinery that the re-streaming of PMS, and the associated truck-outs earlier in the week were fabricated.
The Chief Corporate Communications Officer of NNPC Limited, Olufemi Soneye in a statement he issued from the company’s headquarters in Abuja on Friday, categorically discredited assertions made by a self-styled ‘community person’, one Timothy Mgbere.
Mgbere’s claims, showcased in a viral video, according to the company, erroneously suggested that the re-streaming of the refinery’s PMS and associated truck-outs were fabricated.
Soneye described Mgbere’s remarks as reflective of a ‘crass display of ignorance.’ He argued that the assertions arose from Mgbere’s evident lack of understanding of the refinery’s operations.
Key among Mgbere’s claims was the assertion that the Old Port Harcourt Refinery is merely operational in name, failing to produce PMS as it does not possess its own loading gantry.
However, NNPC Limited pointed out that the Old and New Port Harcourt Refineries operate as a unified entity, sharing essential utilities, including storage tanks and loading facilities.
“The Old and New Port Harcourt Refineries have since been integrated with one single terminal for products load-out. They share common utilities like power and storage tanks. This means that storage tanks and loading gantry which he claimed belongs to the New Port-Harcourt Refinery can also receive products from the Old Port Harcourt Refinery,” Soneye clarified.
The company accused Mgbere of spewing out additional misinformation by “inaccurately boasting’ that the refinery had the capacity to produce 1.4 million barrels per day, while NNPC reminded the public that the actual “nameplate capacity of the refinery is 60,000barrels of oil per day. It is currently producing at 90 per cent throughput which translates to Straight-Run Gasoline (Naphtha) blended into 1.4million litres of PMS, aside other products like diesel and kerosene.
He urged the public to dismiss Mgbere’s claims as ‘sheer mischief’ and a blatant misrepresentation of facts about the refinery’s operations.
“We call on the general public to disregard the claims of the self-acclaimed ‘community person’ which are obviously borne out of sheer mischief and blatant display of ignorance.”.