The Special Adviser on Information and Strategy to President Bola Tinubu, Bayo Onanuga, has said work is currently ongoing at the 150,000 barrels per day plant of the Port Harcourt Refining Company in Rivers State.
PHRC has two plants including the 60,000bpd facility, and the 150,000bpd plant.
Onanuga also said the 60,000bpd refinery is operating at 70 per cent of installed capacity and plans to increase production shortly.
He further said the refinery receives regular crude oil contrary to claims of lacking the product.
He disclosed this after joining a fact-finding team at the 60,000 barrels per day refinery on Wednesday.
On Thursday in a post on X titled “Putting to Rest Rumours about Port Harcourt Refinery Complex: Our Fact-Finding Mission”, the presidential aide said the lies and doubts about the refinery had been dismissed by the team’s fact-finding mission.
He explained that the team was satisfied with the state of the refinery.
Onanuga said, “I was part of a fact-finding team that visited the 60,000 barrels daily Port Harcourt Refining Complex on Wednesday. I will now share our findings.
“Our team, guided by the refinery’s Managing Director Ibrahim Onoja, toured the entire complex, from the computerised control room to the loading bay and every section in between. We asked pointed questions and received satisfactory answers, dispelling our doubts and misconceptions.
“Nigerians must ignore naysayers and false information about the refinery’s operations. While it is not currently running at 100 per cent, it is functioning at 70 per cent installed capacity, with plans to increase production shortly.
“Furthermore, the refinery receives regular crude supplies, contrary to claims that it lacks crude to refine.”
He commended NNPCL for reviving “this dead asset,” on the “verge of becoming a museum piece.”