By Charles Pemu 
ABUJA, Nigeria – After spending $1.5 billion on the Port Harcourt Refinery’s rehabilitation, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has admitted that restarting operations before full completion was a costly and ill-informed decision.
Group CEO Bayo Ojulari made this known during a company wide town hall, noting that recent technical and financial reviews of the nation’s refineries including Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna revealed serious flaws in the rushed restart approach.
Despite an earlier claim by then GCEO Mele Kyari that the refinery was 88% complete in December 2023, and a product rollout in late 2024, the facility was again shut down in May 2025 for additional maintenance.
Ojulari dismissed ongoing rumours of a sale to Dangote Group, clarifying that “selling is highly unlikely” and would lead to further value erosion. Instead, he called for advanced technical partnerships to complete and upgrade the plants.
This comes amid renewed public scrutiny over Nigeria’s decades long failure to rehabilitate its refineries despite enormous expenditure. A 2023 report by the House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee revealed that over ₦11 trillion, along with $593 million, €4.9 billion, and £3.5 billion, was spent on refineries from 2010 to 2023 with little to show.
In a related development, Aliko Dangote recently questioned the viability of state owned refineries, suggesting they may never function effectively. He revealed that his motivation to build the Dangote Refinery stemmed from the government’s refusal to sell the existing ones, despite prior interest and a $750 million offer under former President Olusegun Obasanjo, later reversed by his successor Umaru Yar’Adua.
Obasanjo echoed similar concerns earlier this year, saying, “Over $2 billion has been wasted on refineries, and they still won’t work.” He criticized NNPC’s history of mismanagement and alleged that corruption, not capability, was at the heart of the persistent failures.
Despite promises of reform, Nigeria’s refinery woes persist, casting doubt over the sustainability of public investment in the sector, especially as further injection of over $500 million is reportedly being considered.