Fuel marketers have confirmed that the Port Harcourt Refining Company has supplied them with about 15 trucks of diesel daily since it was shut down for maintenance on May 24, 2025.

This indicated that the marketers have lifted up to 3,150 trucks of diesel in the past seven months since the plant stopped producing.

The Publicity Secretary of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlet Owners Association of Nigeria, Joseph Obele, told our correspondent in an interview that the marketers still load an average of 15 trucks of diesel daily at the Port Harcourt refinery.

The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority disclosed in a recent report that the Port Harcourt refinery, which is currently shut down, was still supplying 349,000 litres of automotive gas oil daily.

According to the NMDPRA, the refinery, which the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited shut down on May 24, was still having diesel evacuated into the market daily as of November.

On May 24, Soneye issued an official statement, announcing the shutdown of the refinery for maintenance. However, more than seven months later, the refinery has yet to start producing fuel.

While stressing that there are no production activities at the refinery due to its current shutdown mode, the regulatory agency disclosed that the diesel produced before it was shut down was still being evacuated as of November.

“No production activities as the (Port Harcourt) refinery remained in shutdown mode. However, evacuation of AGO produced while the refinery was operational before 24th May 2025 continued at an average of 0.349 million litres/day,” the NMDPRA data read.

Confirming this, Obele, who is also a member of the fuel marketers in Eleme, Rivers State, said the traders still bought 15 trucks of diesel up till the time of the interview on Sunday.

“The Port Harcourt refinery has still been supplying diesel since May, when it was shut down. Yes, it is true. We load a minimum of 15 trucks every day,” Obele said.

The PETROAN spokesman confirmed that the facility has a huge reservoir of diesel. This means that the plant produced more diesel than petrol within the six months of its reopening.

However, Obele expressed concerns that the plant would run out of the available diesel by February next year, calling on the NNPC to reopen the refinery before February. “They may run out of stock by February; hence, we are advocating that the plant should come up before then,” he added.

The shutdown of the Port Harcourt Refining Company for maintenance has entered its seventh month, and the plant has yet to resume operations. The PUNCH recalls that the immediate past Chief Corporate Communications Officer of the NNPC, Olufemi Soneye, told our correspondent on May 23 that the refinery would be shut down for one month of maintenance.

On May 24, Soneye issued an official statement, announcing the shutdown of the refinery for maintenance. However, more than seven months later, the refinery has yet to start producing fuel.

The Port Harcourt refinery was declared operational by the former Group Chief Executive Officer of the NNPC, Mele Kyari, in November 2024, after years of inactivity.

Then, the NNPC boss said the 60,000-capacity refinery had resumed full operations. It said the newly rehabilitated complex of the old Port Harcourt refinery, which had been revamped and upgraded with modern equipment, was operating at a refining capacity of 70 per cent of its installed capacity.

The company added that diesel and pour fuel oil would be the highest outputs from the refinery, with a daily capacity of 1.5 million litres and 2.1 million litres, respectively.

This was expected to be followed by a daily output of straight-run gasoline (naphtha) blended into 1.4 million litres of premium motor spirit, 900,000 litres of kerosene, and 2.1 million litres of low-pour fuel oil. It was stated then that about 200 trucks of petrol would be released into the Nigerian market daily.

However, six months after the much-publicised rehabilitation completion and resumption of production, the facility was locked again. Similarly, the Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company, which was declared open by Kyari in December, was shut down a month later.

On his assumption of office, the new Group Chief Executive of the NNPC, Bayo Ojulari, said he studied the condition of the Port Harcourt refinery and discovered that the country was running it at a loss.

Ojulari had stated that the refinery was losing as much as $500m every month on operations before rehabilitation works were suspended. According to Ojulari, the refinery was pumping about 50,000 barrels of crude, but less than 40 per cent of the equivalent of what was going in was being processed effectively.

He said, “When I resumed, one of the first priorities I focused on was the refinery. I did a quick review to see if we could quickly fix it. What I found is that we were losing between $300m and $500m on a monthly basis. The first thing we said was, ‘Rather than continue to lose, let’s quickly stop and look for a way to put this refinery into a sustainably profitable venture.”

The Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria has called for the privatisation of Nigeria’s four state-owned refineries, urging the Federal Government to transparently conclude the process by the first quarter of 2026.

The association said the timely privatisation of the refineries operated by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited would eliminate the recurring fiscal burden on the government, improve operational efficiency, attract private capital and technical expertise, and align Nigeria’s refining sector with global best practices.

But Ojulari has once rejected calls for the sale of the refineries, expressing confidence that the three plants would be revamped. According to him, the ongoing technical and commercial review is part of a broader plan to reposition the refineries as sustainable, revenue-generating assets that can meet Nigeria’s fuel demand and align with international operational standards.

The NNPC spokesman, Andy Odeh, did not reply to messages seeking further comments about the NNPC refineries.