After spending $1.5 billion on the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt Refinery, the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mr. Bayo Ojulari, has described the decision to operate the facility before full completion as “ill-informed” and commercially unviable.
Ojulari made the statement during a company-wide town hall meeting at the NNPC Towers in Abuja, where he addressed staff and senior executives on the status of the country’s refineries and the corporation’s future strategy.
The Federal Government had in April 2021 awarded the $1.5 billion contract for the rehabilitation of the 210,000 barrels-per-day facility to Italian firm Maire Tecnimont. Although the NNPCL, under then-CEO Mele Kyari, announced in December 2023 that the refinery had reached 88% completion with plans for full mechanical operation by year-end, actual output did not begin until November 2024 when product trucking commenced. However, by May 2025, operations were abruptly halted for further maintenance.
Ojulari, speaking candidly about the premature launch, noted that ongoing technical and financial reviews had shown the decision lacked sound judgment. “The earlier decision to operate the Port Harcourt refinery before the full completion of its rehabilitation was ill-informed and sub-commercial,” he said, adding that the company remains committed to completing a high-grade overhaul of the plant.
Dismissing recent speculations about a possible sale of the refinery—particularly to the Dangote Group—Ojulari emphasized that the asset would remain under government control. “Selling is highly unlikely as it would lead to further value erosion,” he said, despite earlier remarks in a Bloomberg interview suggesting that “all options are on the table.”
The NNPCL boss reiterated the company’s commitment to national energy security and the long-term viability of the country’s refining sector, while calling for advanced technical partnerships to support the completion of the rehabilitation efforts across the Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna refineries.
His remarks come amid renewed scrutiny of Nigeria’s decades-long struggle to revive its ailing refineries, despite massive investments and repeated Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) projects. According to a 2023 report by the House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee on the State of Refineries, over N11.3 trillion was spent on refinery rehabilitation between 2010 and 2023. The committee also cited additional expenditures amounting to $593 million, €4.9 billion, and £3.5 billion.
The country’s refineries—Port Harcourt (commissioned in 1965 and expanded in 1989), Warri (commissioned in 1978), and Kaduna (commissioned in 1980)—have remained largely non-functional, with past TAMs either poorly executed or never completed. Analysts estimate that Nigeria may have spent up to $18 billion on refinery repairs and upgrades since the early 2000s, with little to show for it.
Meanwhile, prominent business figures like Aliko Dangote and former President Olusegun Obasanjo have cast doubt on the government’s ability to successfully operate the refineries. Dangote recently said the facilities “may never operate properly again,” citing the failed attempt by his company to acquire them under the Obasanjo administration—a move later reversed by President Umaru Yar’Adua.
Obasanjo, in a recent interview, echoed the sentiment, revealing that international oil companies had warned that the refineries were beyond repair. “When you want to sell them, you will not get anybody to buy them at $200 million as scrap,” he said. “NNPC knew they could not do it, but they continued with the corruption that was going on.”
Despite the grim history, Ojulari’s renewed assurance has stirred cautious optimism within the NNPCL workforce. According to the company’s statement, the town hall meeting was met with “applause” from staff, who described the CEO’s vision as “reassuring” and “transformational.”
As the government plans to inject an additional $500 million into its refinery rehabilitation drive, industry stakeholders continue to question the wisdom of further spending without structural reform and accountability.
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