• Residents urge FG to hasten up Kaduna Refinery revival
By Tony John, Port Harcourt and Noah Ebije (Kaduna)
People in Alesa, Eleme Local Government Area, Rivers State, the host community of the Port Harcourt Refining Company, PHRC, have expressed reservations over claims that the company which in its heydays was the crown jewel of crude oil refining had comeback on stream, and started to produce refined products for distribution.
It would be recalled that on Tuesday, November 26, 2024, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited said it had fulfilled its pledge of re-streaming the Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC).
The Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO), Mr Mele Kyari, while speaking at the ceremony in Alesa Eleme, in Rivers State, where the refinery is located, said that re-streaming of the refining company signaled the commencement of crude oil processing from the plant and delivery of petroleum products to the domestic market.
It was celebrated as trucks began loading petroleum products which included Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) otherwise known as petrol, Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) or diesel and Dual Purpose Kerosene (DPK) or Kerosene, while other product slates would be dispatched accordingly.
The Group CEO described the commencement of the load out activities as a monumental achievement for Nigeria, signifying a new era of energy independence and economic growth for the country.
But few days after the event, the social media space was awash with stories that the so-called PHRC commencement was a smokescreen to deceive members of the public, after several failed dates of resumption of operations announced by the Federal Government.
Intrigued, Sunday Sun made a bee line to gauge the tempo of collateral business activities in the area around the refineries when in full operation, which in the past used to bustle with all manner of people engaged in various informal business activities, ranging from shops selling consumable items, vulcanisers, to tanker drivers, among others.
Reactions from respondents, who included natives (host community), business vendors, tanker drivers and others, revealed that the PHRC is yet to come back to its old form.
One of the major characteristics of a refinery site is the daily hustling and bustling. But, this could not be witnessed at the PHRC at Alesa, Eleme Local Government Area of the state.
Sunday Sun, however, tried to find out if it was the Yuletide celebration that made the place not feel busy as some people who travelled might have not returned.
But respondents replied that the Yuletide celebration would not have had anything to do with business activities around the area, if the refinery was operating at full capacity.
One of them, Mr Mgbere Timothy, from Alesa, the host community, stated that business cannot return to the place until there is full operation at the company.
He said: “The truth is that any construction site attracts business. Normally, opposite the refinery, there are food vendors and others, where people go and buy food and other small items.
“So, because of the rehabilitation, such places are patronized by workers who crowd the food vendors and eat in the morning and lunch time. That is a definite activity in an area where such work is going on.
“The big question is, especially the Port Harcourt depot area, this depot area used to boom even more than the refinery area. This is because, at the depot area, you have people from all walks of life – the petroleum marketers, those coming to buy from loaded petroleum marketers and the food vendors.
“In fact, high level of business activities used to happen around the Port Harcourt Depot Area. But, if you go there today, the question is, is that happening? The simple answer is no.
“It is no because the depot is the output of the refinery. If you say refinery is producing on 70, 80 or 90 per cent which the NNPCL is telling Nigerians, where is the output?”
According to Timothy, during the period the PHRC was productive, over 200 trucks of PMS, AGO and other products were loaded daily.
“During the hay days, even when they were initially importing only PMS, at the refinery depot, they would load 110, 120 trucks. By the time you add AGO and other products, you’re loading 180, 200 and more trucks per day. And that is serious activity area. That time, the depot was always crowded. Are we seeing that today? Is it happening?
“On 26th November, 2024, the government said it had commissioned the place. Is business happening? Yesterday, you said you loaded. How many trucks? Just only seven trucks of PMS. The first time they said they loaded AGO, it was 12 trucks of AGO,” he disclosed.
Timothy, who is a stakeholder in the community, said that what is happening at the refinery (not the depot) is skeletal operation.
He said: “When you historically compare what is happening at the depot today and what used to be obtainable in the past, it has not done up to 20 per cent of what used to be obtainable at the depot. That is the only way Nigerians would know that the refinery is working. The depot would be crowded. But, are you seeing it?”
Another respondent, Elder Magnus Onyekwere, a tanker driver, corroborated Timothy’s position that skeletal operation at the refinery is affecting business activities around the area.
Onyekwere, who said he has been old in the business, stated that it would take time for business to return depending on the progress of production at the refinery.
He said: “Although many people travelled for Christmas and New Year celebrations, business activities are gradually starting.
“Before, this road (referring to the refinery road that leads to Okrika Local Government Area) used to be very busy with trucks, cars, okada riders (motorcyclists). That time, you would see bukas (food vendors), variety of shops, bars and restaurants in full operation, selling hot food like crazy.
“In fact, those years when the refinery was working, business was booming. Even late in the night, you could get buka where to buy food. Now, before evening, people doing business have started locking up their shops because nothing serious is happening.”
Similarly, a lady, Nancy, who runs a restaurant, said that she was optimistic that business would return to the area, when the refinery starts full operation.
Her words: “It is when the refinery is working and tankers are loading products that our business can boom. It is the tanker drivers and marketers majorly that make our business to flourish.
“Before, I used to cook variety of foods and pepper soup. All that stopped. Some people who were doing business here closed shop. We pray that things could change because it has not been easy.”
Kaduna residents demand that refinery be fixed like those of Warri, Port Harcourt
People in the host communities of the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemicals Company (KRPC) have asked the Federal Government to hasten the revival of the refinery like it has done in Port Harcourt and Warri refineries, as announced.
To this end, the people advised the National Assembly to embark on oversight visits to the Kaduna refinery, and urge the government to release more funds to contractors handling the work at the refinery to meet up with the target of quick delivery.
The host communities which are mostly dominated by the indigenous Gbagi tribe had on many occasions cried about the KRPC endangering human lives in their communities through harmful gas leakage on crops in the areas.
President, Gbagyi Development Union, Kaduna State, Ishaya Tanko Damina, told Sunday Sun: “Our call to FG is to hasten the rehabilitation work at Kaduna Refinery to function more effectively like the Warri and Port Harcourt refineries respectively. This can be done by effective oversight by the National Assembly and release of more funds to the contractors handling the work. We are also advocating for more slots of employment for the host community through public private partnership and for the refinery to be responsible to its host community by providing essential amenities.
“Secondly, the refinery and the Federal Government are yet to pay compensation to the host community for the gas flaring and other environmental degradation of our environment, especially the one that was done late last year and the unlawful gas flaring against our people and environment that has continued unabated, thereby inflicting serious health damage to our people without any compensation for the loss of large farm lands, crops, water, animals and deteriorating health status.”
In the same vein, the Chairman, Middle Belt Forum (MBF), Kaduna State chapter, Mr Luka Binniyat told Sunday Sun: “Until the last eight years, the orange tongue flames from tower high turrets at the Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemicals Company (KRPC) was more like the Olympic Torch of Kaduna city, signifying that major, engineering, economic, financial and social games were going on in the old Northern Nigeria regional capital city. It was symbolic, and indeed a true statement that Kaduna was alive and never really sleeps from activities of its 145,000 barrels/day capacity refinery.
“Unfortunately, children born eight years ago have never seen that iconic flame from KRPC – the biggest Federal Government investment in the North of the Niger and Benue rivers and which sits right in Chikun Local Government Area of Southern Kaduna, in the Middle Belt.”
After surviving series of hiccups in operations in the past, it would always somehow pick up, and the towers would, again keep belching out flames of production and life would go on.
But no sooner had General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) was sworn in as the President of Nigeria on May 29, 2015, it was as if his oath of office included swearing to shut down the KRPC all through his tenure. In the first months of his tenure, it was as if KPRC would “faint and wake” at about 30 per cent production capacity.
Expressing his pain over what befell KPRC, he said: “Buhari used his then loquacious Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, to make grandiose promises of revamping the KRPC to 90 per cent production capacity the few times he visited the expansive plant. But he could as well as had been saying the eulogy to its operations as it later turned out – the refinery never came up again. Today, it is still undergoing what looks like a very secret rehabilitation that is spanning its eight years of shutdown.
“Since it started operation it has not only been a source of thousands of direct and indirect employment, the KRPC created an economic hub of its own: from ancillary services that included huge haulage rail line, pipelines monitoring, and logistics systems and financial deals and allied services. The KPRC also created industries from the bye-products of refined crude oil. This is not to mention other services such as catering, hotel services and other social services. So, the KRPC was the biggest economic hub of Kaduna state.
“When it stopped production, all associated economic and social gains also stopped. But not the huge monthly salary bills it still pays its workers, who smile home each month with princely wages that have always been the envy of every government worker in Nigeria.
“It has been reported in 2022 by a Nigerian newspaper that the idle workers of the three major refinery gulped N136 billion. The shutting down of KRPC is not only a disastrous loss of thousands of indirect jobs and economic opportunities for hundreds of thousands of people in the host community it is also a drain on public purse. Unfortunately, we are not aware of any efforts to kick-start it, 19 months into the new administration.”
This post was originally published on here
