NNPCL faults Falana, insists P/Harcourt refinery producing fuel

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) has dismissed claims by human rights activist, Femi Falana, on the state of the Port Harcourt Refinery, insisting that the facility is currently producing petroleum products.

The Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPCL, Mele Kyari, responded to Falana’s claims at yesterday’s grand commissioning ceremony of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) Tower in Lagos. He said he was ready to take Falana on a tour of the refinery to see things himself.

He said: “It is not fantasy, it is real. This is not a street talk. I am inviting you to see the ongoing level of work. It will shock you. It can be malicious to say it is not working. The Port Harcourt refinery is running and loading is currently ongoing. We are working for you all. 60,000bpd is working and running. We are sending the products into the market.”

Falana, in his goodwill message at the commissioning ceremony, challenged NUPENG and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) to help Nigerians on the controversy surrounding the nation’s refineries.

He urged the oil and gas unions to open up and speak on the current state of the refineries, where the NNPCL had claimed that Nigeria had achieved 90 per cent of 60,000bpd.
He said there is a need to save the country from the recruiting pains with NUPENG and PENGASSAN coming out plainly to tell the truth, and save the citizens from more pains, stating that Nigeria cannot solely depend on a “capitalist-like Dangote.”

Kyari said the nation’s refineries should not be scrapped, saying that the NNPCL is working for all, and there was no need for anyone to demarket the company.

He stressed that the process of blending was part of the refining process.
“Every refinery blends. There is no refinery where you open a tap and rinse out the gasoline so that it will not blend. There is no crime when you blend in a refinery. If we go the way it is done abroad, all your gas will go because of the environmental pressure. Requirements are different. Every refinery that mixes gasoline is a mixture of chemicals. There is no one chemical,” he added.

President Bola Tinubu, in his remark, called for a strengthened relationship with the unions in the oil and gas sector for the benefit of Nigerians, stating that the success of the oil and gas sector should be measured according to the success of the unions for higher production and more revenue for the government.

Represented by Heineken Lokpobiri, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Tinubu challenged NUPENG and PENGASSAN that they would be held accountable if the sector falters, urging them on a renewed commitment to grow the sector for the benefit of the country.