New Telegraph-Admin 
The Coalition of Niger Delta Youth on Energy Reforms and Transparency in the Oil and Gas Sector has asked the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) Group Chief Executive Officer Mele Kyari to ensure that the Port Harcourt Refinery becomes operational before the end of this month as promised.
The lawyers claimed that there are plans to convert the refinery into a blending plant, “where substandard petroleum products from Russia will be mixed with chemicals and sold to Niger Delta people”.
At a press conference yesterday in Abuja by Dickens Opu and Werigbelegha Zinake, the group lamented that despite the billions of naira that had been earmarked and disbursed for the functionality of the refinery it has remains non-operational.
The lawyers said the NNPCL’s failure to revamp local refineries had further worsened the country’s energy crisis and impoverished the people of the oil-producing Niger Delta.
The group alleged that the Port Harcourt Refinery is being planned to be converted into a blending plant.
The lawyers claimed that substandard petroleum products from Russia would be mixed with chemicals and sold to Niger Delta residents.
The lawyers expressed concern over the potential environmental impact of converting the refinery into a blending plant.
