Tanker drivers have accused the management of Port Harcourt of Refinery, :PHRC of deliberately delaying loading of products thereby causing large queues.
The drivers operating under the umbrella of Petroleum Tanker Drivers, PTD, have fully engaged in verbal war with the Refinery and accused them of having something nefarious up their sleeves.
Reacting the Port Harcourt Refinery officials countered and accused tanker drivers of being responsible for the low pace of loading of petroleum products at the facility.
But the PTD, through its umbrella body, the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, dismissed the allegation, saying the company was being economical with the truth.
Meanwhile, Major Energy Marketers Association of Nigeria, MEMAN, Petroleum Products Retail Outlets owners Association of Nigeria, PETROAN and National President, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN, said they were ready to lift products and were working on it.
When Vanguard visited the Area 5 of the refinery, yesterday, about 3p.m., refining of petroleum products was ongoing.
A source in the facility said the refinery produces daily, adding that it has maintained its production status as disclosed earlier on Tuesday.
Also, at the loading bay of the refinery, three trucks were being loaded, while seven others were standing by within the bay to be loaded.
It was observed that of the 18 loading points in the facility, only three were in use.
It was further observed that only tankers with NNPC insignia were loading and seen within the premises of the refinery.
Although the facility was not bustling with life, activities were on going within the loading bay and the production area.
Speaking on the altercation, the Terminal Manager of Port Harcourt Refinery, Worlu Joel, disclosed that the Petroleum Products Marketing Company, PPMC, arm of the refinery was working and that loading of trucks has not stopped since Tuesday.
He noted that the facility has the capacity of loading 100 trucks in an hour, but that out of the 18 points, 11 were functional at the moment.
He said out of the 11, only three were being used because the facility was delivering optimally.
Joel said: “This is PPMC loading arm. We have 11 loading bays that are functional but because of the capacity, it has a huge capacity to deliver, so we are using three at the moment because it is efficient.
“Out of the three, each one has the capacity of loading three trucks in 15 minutes. A truck is 45,000 litres minimum. We have the ones of 60,000 litres. Already, we have loaded more than 10 trucks.
“So, before the close of work yesterday, just in the next one hour, we are going to evacuate minimum of 15 trucks.”
Joel said that there were enough products but that tankers drivers are not coming up to load, calling on tankers drivers to come on to load.
He said: “We have surplus products available. We have our loading arms operational and we have been begging them to come in since, yesterday but because today is weekend that is why they have not turned up.
“If you give us 100 trucks yesterday, we will evacuate it in less than five hours. So, it is not our problem if there are no loading trucks, it is the tanker drivers’ problem. We have been begging them since yesterday to come around and take the products but they didn’t turn up, it was just this morning (yesterday) after pleading with them that they came.”
