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The National President of the Nigerian Society of Chemical Engineers, Tony Ogbuigwe has explained that the Port-Harcourt Refinery, contrary to criticisms and claims from several publications, is indeed up and running, and is producing petroleum products.
Ogbuigwe said this in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Sunday, where he clarified that the refinery is coming up in stages, and though it is not yet fully on stream, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) is working to send out products, and at the same time, ramp up the production capacity of the refinery.
He said, “The truth of the matter is that the Port-Harcourt refinery- the area 5 of Port-Harcourt refinery is running, and it is indeed running. Port-Harcourt Refinery has two parts- there is the old refinery and the new refinery. The old refinery is the one that has been brought back into operation. It is running, we can confirm that it is running.
“We have made contact with our colleagues, professional chemical engineers who are on the ground, and they have confirmed that the refinery is indeed running. Products are being produced from the old refinery, and those products are being blended to give the PMS that we consume in our cars, and diesel oil which we consume in trucks, and which some of us use in our generators as well. Those products are indeed being produced. Kerosene is also being produced, and that is the truth.”
Shedding more light on the refinery’s production process, Ogbuigwe explained that the production is being brought up in stages as he said, “Exactly as you referred to the Dangote refinery, it had to be brought up in stages. It’s exactly the same thing that is happening in the Port-Harcourt refinery. Crude oil comes into a refinery and goes into what is called the crude distillation unit. There, there is the distillation in the column and products come out from the column at various levels. From the top is gas, which eventually goes to give you your cooking gas.
“And then the next level down is light NAPHTHA or straight run gasoline as some call it. And then the next level is heavy NAPHTHA, and then kerosene, and then diesel, and fuel oil which is from the bottom of the column. These are the straight products that come from the column but they go for further processing in different parts of the refinery. The heavy NAPHTHA goes to what is called a catalytic reforming unit where it is then reformed into high octane stock because the light NAPHTHA or straight run gasoline as some call it is low octane, and is not missing the spec of the 1991 which is the standard for PMS.
“So, what has happened is that the area 5 was commissioned, and the main column- the crude distillation unit has been commissioned and it is running. And as I said, it is producing those products. And however the heavy NAPHTHA, which should go into the catalytic reforming unit, that unit, the CRU is the next unit which will be brought on stream, and that is not yet on stream.”
Ogbuigwe then addressed misconceptions about the refinery’s production, saying, “Some people have been making statements in the media about a product called crack C-5 coming from Eleme petrochemicals and that that is what they have been loading. No, the reality, the t truth is that the Area 5, otherwise called the old Port-Harcourt refinery, is producing light NAPHTHA, or straight run gasoline, is producing heavy NAPHTHA, is producing Kero, is producing light gas oil which goes out as your diesel, and is also producing fuel oil. Now, those things are being blended, the light NAPHTHA is blended with the crack C-5 which is being obtained from Eleme Petrochemicals, and together, that is what is giving you your PMS.
“I’m surprised that people are saying that no loading has taken place. Loading has actually taken place, and trucks have been loaded, and those trucks have gone out to go and supply the public.”
Reiterating that the refinery was not just blending what it did not produce, Ogbuigwe said, “Every refinery does blending everyday. In the refinery, we produce- like I told you, these product which are not the products you see outside, we produce LPG, we produce light NAPHTHA, we produce heavy NAPHTHA, we produce kerosene, we produce light gas oil, we produce heavy gas oil, we produce atmospheric residue. These are going into the storage tanks- every refinery.
“Then from those storage tanks, you’ll now start blending for the public, because these things I’ve mentioned now are not the things that the public consumes. The public consumes PMS. What is PMS? PMS is a blend of light NAPHTHA- which is a lower run by-product- with high octane products like crack C-5, or, when the catalytic reforming unit starts, they will produce reformate. Reformate is high octane stock. By the time the CRU starts, there will really be no need anymore for the crack C-5 because the CRU produces reformate which is high octane. The octane of reformate is about 94, 95, 96, depending on start of run-end of run. That is what is then blended with light NAPHTHA to give you your PMS,” he added, saying that it is the heavy NAPHTHA that is sent to the CRU to be reformed into reformate.
On present day operations, he said, “As far as I know, the refinery is running at about 60-70% right now, they are probably ramping up towards 90…Hopefully, when they ramp up to 90% then, of course, there will be more products coming out.
“What I will be looking forward to would be for the catalytic reforming unit to be brought into operation as well, so that the refinery- Area 5- can fully optimise the crude oil that it is processing, and then you can have a lot more products reaching the public.”
Regarding pricing, Ogbuigwe noted, “As for the price at which they sell it, because it is a refinery in the country, I am sure they are going to look at their production costs and what it is costing them to take it to the people. And then the price would be determined accordingly.”
“There is a template which is used in determining the price of petroleum products. What we may hope is that, since they are no longer having to transport these products from Rotterdam, we will see a little difference between the price it was before when it was being imported and now that it is being produced. But we will see- that will depend on the efficiency of production and the cost that they are incurring in the process of producing the products,” he added.
Ozioma Samuel-Ugwuezi
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