Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited said Friday that claims made by the Alesa Community the Port Harcourt Refinery is not functioning are false information being fed to members of the public.
Secretary-general of the Alesa community, Timothy Mgbere had alleged during an Arise TV interview that the Port Harcourt Refinery was not producing any refined products as being claimed by the NNPCL adding that stocks loaded by trucks on Tuesday were from storage tanks.
But responding to the claims NNPCL chief corporate communications officer Olufemi Soneye, said in a statement that Mr. Mgbere lacked knowledge of the refinery’s operations.
“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.
“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,” Mr Soneye said.
The Port Harcourt Refineries comprise two units, with the old plant having a refining capacity of 60,000 barrels per day (bpd) and the new plant 150,000 bpd, both summing up to 210,000 bpd. In 2021 the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari approved $1.5 billion for the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt Refinery.
