Port Harcourt Refinery
After one week of inactivity, the Port Harcourt Refining Company has resumed trucking out of Premium Motor Spirit otherwise called Petrol.
It will be recalled that the refinery abruptly stopped the loading of petrol a fortnight ago as no reason was initially offered for the development which left many marketers stranded.
A visit to the Port Harcourt Refinery Depot reports that last Thursday reports that the place was a shadow of itself as the loading bay was empty without any activity through the preceding week.
The Chief Corporate Communications Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Olufemi Soneye, had in a statement said ‘preparation for loading operation was ongoing.”
But after PUNCH’s report on Saturday, it was gathered that the lifting of petrol commenced with 11 trucks loading petrol from the depot.
Also, the reporter who visited the facility on Monday observed that activities had yet to fully commence as there were no human and vehicular activities until 1 pm when things started picking up.
By 1:14 pm, trucks were seen driving into the 18-arm loading bay and by 2 pm seven trucks drove in and started loading as two trucks immediately lifted petrol while a fire service truck was stationed at the loading bay in the event of any fire outbreak.
The first truck started lifting petrol at exactly 1:18 pm, while two trucked out petrol by 2 pm on Monday, while a total of ten trucks lifted petrol at 4:30 pm which suggests that more trucks might load before 6 pm.
While the trucks at the loading bay were lifting PMS, seven other cleared trucks were waiting to load at the Onyema gate, adjacent to the loading bay when our reporter left the depot on Monday evening.
Meanwhile, some marketers seen at the Depot of the old Port Harcourt Refining Company built in 1963 have decried the frequent shutting down of loading operations without any explanation.
They also expressed dismay that of the 18 arms in the loading bay, only three were functional while the others had yet to be calibrated.
One of them who gave his name as Liti said, “We are not happy over what is happening here. If the operation is going on fully here, you will see this place will be full of trucks and they can load up to 50 trucks before 6 pm.
“So let government come to help us and make sure the refinery is working well.”
It was also gathered that not all the arms in the loading bay truck out petrol, some are meant to truck out DPRK popularly known as Kerosene and Automated Gas Oil, popularly called Diesel, as the refinery had yet to commence production of kerosene and diesel. (The PUNCH)
