Oil marketers in Rivers State under the auspices of Eleme & Okrika Host Community Bulk Petroleum Retailers Association have refuted the claims of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) that the old Port Harcourt Refinery was shut down for maintenance purposes.
Speaking at a press conference in Port Harcourt on Thursday, the association said contrary to the claims of NNPCL that the refinery was functional until it was shut down last week Friday, the facility has been under starvation of crude oil for long.
The association expressed fears that the facility may become moribund like the Warri Refinery.
Speaking further on the matter, the Administrative Secretary and Spokesman of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlet Owners Association of Nigeria, Joseph Obele, said the shutdown of the refinery was far from maintenance.
“As members of the Host Community Bulk Petroleum Retailers Association, we have privileged information, and it is true that the refinery has been denied crude for some days now, and shutting down the refinery was far from maintenance, but it was short of crude oil.
“The internal memo from them (the PHRC management) stated that the crude oil cracking process without PMS is of no value. They were not getting PMS from the crude oil; they were getting only AGO. So the refinery was shut down, far from maintenance, based on the information at the reach of the bulk petroleum retailers from the host community,” Obele said.
He hammered that the association was raising the alarm to inform President Bola Tinubu that the facility was denied crude, alleging that the crude was diverted.
“There was no crude supply to the refinery, and the question we are asking is that if they are denying this refinery crude oil, where is the local volume? And it won’t be in any other place than finding its feet in the international market. The Federal Government of Nigeria, under President Tinubu, is against selling the crude meant for local consumption. So, we are raising an alarm for him to know that they have denied the refinery crude oil, and the volume that is meant for the local refinery should be questioned,” he stressed.
He worried that the refinery would not start operations in 30 days if there was no crude in its reservoirs, as of the time of this report.
“Even after 30 days, if the refinery is to come up, there will be no crude oil available. So, where is the crude oil meant for the local refinery? Their claim is maintenance but our own position is that how come it stopped getting its crude oil? And even if it comes up in 30 days, there’s no possibility of this refinery coming up in 30 days because there’s no crude oil coming up.
“Weeks before it came up in November, there was a sufficient supply of crude oil. As we speak, the refinery is dry of crude, and there’s a crude oil volume meant for the local refinery. Where is that crude oil? Supply of crude doesn’t take one day, it takes weeks,” Obele argued.
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