Nigerian Labor Congress, NLC, and Trade Union Congress, TUC, leaders have confirmed that the old Port Harcourt refinery is operational.
This confirmation came after a tour of the facility by union leaders Joe Ajaero and Felix Osifo to assess its operations as disclosed in a post on the official X account of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited
During the visit, the Executive Vice President Downstream of NNPCL informed the delegation that the new Port Harcourt refinery is now 90% complete.
“The Nigerian Labour Congress, led by its President, Joe Ajaero and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, led by President Felix Osifo, have confirmed that the Old Port Harcourt Refinery is now operational and producing high-quality petroleum products.
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“They both led a delegation of labor union leaders and conducted an inspection of the rehabilitated facility on Monday, affirming its functionality and output standards,” the tweet read.
The confirmation of the refinery’s operations by the Presidents of the country’s labour unions comes days after the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria confirmed the resumption of production.
On November 26, 2024, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited confirmed that the Port Harcourt Refinery had resumed production after extensive rehabilitation.
At the time, NNPCL stated that the facility was operating at 70% of its full capacity, with daily production of 1.5 million litres of diesel and 2.1 million litres of Pour Fuel Oil.
Reports surfaced alleging that instead of processing crude oil, the refinery blended “Cracked C5 petroleum resins” with Naphtha to sell as processed products.
NNPCL spokesperson Soneye defended the refinery, noting that blending is a standard industry practice.
Located in the Alesa community in Eleme, the refinery faced additional scrutiny when community leader Timothy Mgbere raised concerns about product quality, claiming that the petroleum products loaded from the facility were not newly refined but stored products from the past three years.
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