The Port Harcourt refinery currently undergoing test run in anticipation of commencement of commercial refining of crude oil is facing some setbacks due to deliberate sabotage and acts of vandalism, which are currently hindering commemce to start production.
The Port Harcourt Refining Company announced on Wednesday that some vandals have been arrested while carrying out a night operation at the Refinery complex. Some of the suspects were caught with various items like Motorised Valva (MOV), termination cable assembly and copper cables.
Other items such as hack saws, pliers used for cutting cables and rubbing used to shroud stolen materials and other vital equipment were also recovered from the apprehended vandals.
Before they were caught, the vandals had already stolen a considerable length of armoured cables in addition to anodes installed in a storage tank to protect the tank from corrosion. Each storage tank is said to contain at least 70 sacrificial anodes, each up to one meter in length and weighing 10-20 kilograms. These anodes are welded to the bottom of the tank from the inside.
These anodes are made from expensive aluminium or magnesium alloys and which motivates these vandals and their collaborators to attempt to steal them and sell them off in the black market.
Apart from vandalisation of equipment, the Port Harcourt refinery is also a target for illegal diversion of crude oil stock to nearby bunkering stations. Long pipeline connections were discovered which vandals used to illegally tap petroleum products to feed bunkering sites located outside the plant.
The vandals were said to have connected the pipes at a diversion on the Indorama line close to the Port Harcourt refinery police station.
It is unclear how much of an impact these vandalisation would have on the ability of the Port Harcourt Refinery to commence full commercial operation by August as earlier stated by the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd, Mele Kyari.
On Monday the NNPCL boss during an interactive session with the members of the joint committees of the national assembly on Finance assured that the Port Harcourt Refinery will begin operation by August this year.