General
NNPC Insists Port Harcourt Refinery Processing PMS, Others
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has rubbished claims by a resident of the community hosting the newly revamped Port Harcourt Refinery in Rivers State, Mr Timothy Mgbere, that the facility was not processing crude oil as publicised by the NNPC.
On Tuesday, the NNPC announced to the world that the oil facility, repaired with about $1.5 billion approved in 2021, was processing crude oil at 60 per cent capacity.
The refinery was built many years ago to refine about 150,000 barrels of crude oil per day but had been left fallow until the immediate past President of Nigeria, Mr Muhammadu Buhari, approved funds for its rehabilitation.
After missing several completion deadlines, the state-owned energy company announced on Tuesday that it was now processing crude oil, with trucks seen offloading premium motor spirit (PMS), also known as petrol.
However, some hours later, Mr Mgbere informed Arise TV that the oil refinery was not working as claimed by the NNPC.
Reacting to this in a statement signed by its spokesman, Mr Olufemi Soneye, on Friday, the NNPC asked members of the public to ignore Mr Mgbere because his assertions were a “crass display of ignorance.”
It noted that Mr Mgbere lacked the “knowledge about the workings of the Port Harcourt Refinery.”
“1. He claimed that the Old Port Harcourt Refinery was only operating skeletally and was not processing PMS. His proof was that the PMS truck-out was done at the gantry of the New Port Harcourt Refinery as against the gantry of the Old Port Harcourt Refinery. This betrays his scant knowledge of the operations of the refinery. The Old and New Port Harcourt Refineries have since been integrated with one single terminal for product load-out. They share common utilities like power and storage tanks. This means that storage tanks and loading gantry which he claimed belong to the New Port-Harcourt Refinery can also receive products from the Old Port Harcourt Refinery.
“2. The same person who claimed that the Old Port Harcourt Refinery has its own separate loading gantry from that of the New Port Harcourt Refinery further went on to contradict himself by saying that the PMS that was loaded out from the supposed loading gantry of the New Port Harcourt Refinery was “old stock” from the Old Port Harcourt Refinery. So, how did the purported “old stock” move from the Old Port Harcourt Refinery to the loading gantry of the New Port Harcourt Refinery?
“3. Going by the flawed argument of the so-called ‘community person’, “old PMS stock” from the Old Port Harcourt Refinery can be moved to the loading gantry of the New Port-Harcourt Refinery for the show, but newly produced PMS from the Old Port-Harcourt Refinery can only be loaded at its own dedicated gantry. This is nothing but ignorance on full display!
“4. There are a number of other wild claims made by the man, one of which was that the refinery was producing 1.4 million barrels per day. The nameplate capacity of the refinery is 60,000 barrels of oil per day. It is currently producing at 90 per cent throughput which translates to Straight-Run Gasoline (Naphtha) blended into 1.4 million litres of PMS, aside from other products like diesel and kerosene.
“5. We call on the general public to disregard the claims of the self-acclaimed ‘community person’ which are obviously borne out of sheer mischief and blatant display of ignorance,” the statement said.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
A new branch of the International Facility Management Association (IFMA) Nigeria Chapter has been established in Oyo State, with Mr Adejumo Olusola Babatunde chosen as Coordinator.
The organisation set up an arm in the South-West state in a bid to expand its footprint in the country. Mr Babatunde will be assisted by other executive committee members, including Mr Ajiboye Olusola Akeem as Secretary, and Mrs Adeniran Olaide as Treasurer.
At the inauguration of the branch at the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) Secretariat in the Akobo area of Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, the president of IFMA Nigeria, Mr Sheriff Daramola, expressed delight at the successful inauguration of the branch and commended members for their commitment to the growth of facility management in Nigeria.
He highlighted IFMA’s global heritage, noting that the association is supporting over 25,000 members in more than 140 countries worldwide. Mr Daramola emphasised IFMA’s strong global network, the world’s largest and most widely recognised association for facility management professionals, headquartered in the United States and its growing influence in Africa, the Middle East and Europe.
“IFMA members have taken positions of authority across federal, state, and private institutions; IFMA Nigeria is positioned to ensure our professionals are the first choice for global investors entering the Nigerian market,” he stated.
The Legal Adviser of IFMA, Nigeria, Mr Sola Fatoki, who shared this sentiment, said, “Since 1997, when IFMA Nigeria was established, the association has equipped facility management professionals with integrated knowledge spanning human behaviour, infrastructure, and the built environment.”
He encouraged engineers, architects, surveyors, ITC, Technology innovators, data analysts and allied professionals to see IFMA as their professional home and outlined the functions and responsibilities of branch executive committees.
In his remarks, Mr Babatunde expressed gratitude to the national council for the opportunity to serve and pledged to ensure the success of the branch, focusing on unity and the professional advancement of stakeholders in the region.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) has denied reports that some disputed crude oil and gas wells have been recommended for ceding to specific oil-producing states.
In a statement issued on Sunday, the chairman of the commission, Mr Mohammed Shehu, said the attention of RMAFC had been drawn to a “purported report allegedly issued by the Inter-Agency Committee on the Verification of Coordinates of Disputed Crude Oil and Gas Wells between States,” which was circulating in sections of the national media (excluding Business Post).
The agency described the report as “misleading, premature, and does not represent the position or conclusions of the Commission.”
“At this stage, there is no finalised recommendation or decision regarding the ceding or reallocation of any oil wells, as due institutional processes are still ongoing,” the statement read.
The organisation explained that it operates a clearly defined and transparent procedure in handling assignments of national significance, stressing that the process on the disputed oil wells had not been concluded.
It disclosed that it only received a draft report from the Federal Government’s Inter-Agency Committee on Nigeria’s Oil-Producing States on Friday, February 13, 2026, which reportedly projected Cross River State as an oil-producing state.
The report, covering the nationwide 2017–2025 verification of crude oil and gas coordinates, was presented to the Chairman of RMAFC by 10 of the 14 members of the committee.
The exercise, which ran from August 2025 to February 2026, involved extensive field verification, technical reconciliation of state submissions, and a final plenary plotting of coordinates at RMAFC headquarters between January 24 and 31, 2026.
“Consistent with established protocol, the draft document has been transmitted to relevant technical and statutory stakeholders, namely the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, the National Boundary Commission, and the Office of the Surveyor General of the Federation, for detailed review, observations, and technical input,” the commission stated.
According to the statement, after the observations and recommendations of the agencies are received, the matter will be subjected to further scrutiny by the commission’s internal tripartite committees, comprising the Committee on Crude Oil, Gas and Investment and the Legal Matters Committee.
“These committees will undertake comprehensive technical and legal reviews before presenting their findings to the Plenary Session of RMAFC for deliberation and final recommendations,” it added.
The commission further explained that upon completion of the institutional processes, its final report would be formally transmitted to the President and the Attorney-General of the Federation for necessary consideration and further action in line with applicable laws and constitutional provisions.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Social media platform, X, formerly known as Twitter, suffered an outage globally on Monday as millions of users could not use the service.
The widespread outages have been reported by thousands of users across several countries, including Nigeria, the United States, the United Kingdom, Turkey, and India, among others.
According to data from Downdetector, a website that tracks service disruptions based on user reports, complaints about access to X started to pick up around 1:00 p.m. local time in Nigeria.
The cause of the outage was not immediately clear, and X has not put out any comment, but users told Business Post that the platform is not loading or cannot be reached, and the pattern of complaints suggests the issue is not limited to a single region.
Its developer platform status page stated “all systems are operational” all morning despite the reports.
The outage is the latest to hit internet services. X suffered a similar outage in March 2025, while a Cloudflare service outage caused access problems and downtime for various websites, including X, last November.
Microsoft’s Azure had also faced an issue last year, while disruption at Amazon AWS caused global turmoil among thousands of websites and some of the most popular apps, such as Snapchat and Reddit in October
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