NewStats: 3,263,533 , 8,180,455 topics. Date: Friday, 06 June 2025 at 11:37 AM 65246s

Nigeria’s public refineries, under perpetual government control, remain trapped in a cycle of dormancy and inefficiency. At best, they operate sporadically, with the country squandering resources on endless rehabilitation efforts that yield little progress.

This reality was underscored again late in May when the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited announced that it had shut down the old Port Harcourt Refinery in Eleme, Rivers State, for another round of maintenance.

Indeed, when the NNPC announced the restart of the 60,000 barrels per day PH Refinery in November 2024, many Nigerians received the news with scepticism. Industry watchers argued at the time that the restart was merely window dressing rather than actual progress.

Now, six months later, recent developments have validated those doubts. Despite over $1.5 billion spent on refurbishment, the refinery was shuttered for “planned maintenance and sustainability assessment”. What is the sense in spending so much without result? This calls for a rethink.

Typically, the Turn Around Maintenance Schedule for the plant should be 30 months after the restart, not six. This abrupt shutdown has raised concerns, especially as it followed reports that the refinery was only blending naphtha into diesel, while questions hung over its actual petrol production.

For three decades, Nigeria has depended on petrol imports, incurring enormous costs, while its four public refineries, with a combined nameplate capacity of 445,000 bpd, remained largely inactive.

The Warri Refinery, which has a capacity of 125,000 bpd, faced a similar fate. After a brief resumption of operations in December 2024, it shut down again within a month.

In December 2024, the NNPC announced the return of production at the refinery; however, a month later, it was reportedly closed once more.

Yet, the Federal Government said it had provided $1.55 billion for the rehabilitation of the PH Refinery, $740,669 for the Kaduna Refinery, and $656,963 for the Warri Refinery. This is money badly spent.

Sadly, the epileptic performance of the Warri and PH refineries evokes memories of past failures, and there are genuine fears that the funds spent on rehabilitation may have been wasted once again.

The refineries’ history is littered with failed TAM projects and repeated waste of taxpayer funds on ventures that have become white elephants. It is increasingly clear that, under government ownership, these refineries are unlikely to ever operate efficiently.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo appeared to have realised this when, towards the end of his second term in 2007, his government sold a 51 per cent stake in the two PH refineries at $561 million to the Bluestar Consortium. The consortium paid $300 million upfront.

However, Obasanjo’s successor, the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, reversed the sale. The cancellation has proved to be a bad and costly decision.

Different estimates suggest that Nigeria has spent over $20 billion in rehabilitating the refineries in the past 30 years, with nothing to show for it.


Conversely, billionaire Aliko Dangote built his 650,000-bpd refinery with a similar sum, highlighting the scale of public sector inefficiency.

Given the failure of the government to run the refineries efficiently over the years, the logical solution is full privatisation of these entities and to end the relentless drain on the country’s resources.

The transformation of the Eleme Petrochemicals plant post-privatisation strengthens the argument for this course of action.

Before it was sold in 2006, the Eleme Petrochemicals Company Limited was a huge loss-making subsidiary of the NNPC. Initial assessments indicated that EPCL had an untenable debt burden, needed capital investment, and would not be profitable for its buyer for several years.

However, the turnaround was instant after 75 per cent of the company’s shares were sold to the Indorama Group, which immediately embarked upon a $130 million turnaround maintenance and capital investment programme, returning the facility to operation within four months. It paid its shareholders dividends of N9.5 billion one year after privatisation.


The Nigeria LNG Limited is another success story. With a mixed ownership structure that sees the NNPC owning 49 per cent of the shares and Shell, 25.6 per cent, Total, 15 per cent, and Eni, 10.4 per cent, the company has thrived under astute private capital management since its inauguration in 1999.

The company has regularly paid dividends annually to the Federal Government and its other shareholders and plans to expand its production capacity from 22 million metric tonnes per annum to 30MMT per annum.


With the downstream sector now deregulated, the market is ripe for investment. There would be no shortage of bidders if the government opts to privatise the refineries.

As a major oil producer, Nigeria should be a regional refining hub, supplying petroleum products across West Africa. The Dangote Refinery’s recent opening moves the country closer to this goal.

Privatising the four government refineries would be a significant step towards refining over 1 million bpd domestically. It will bolster government finances and relieve it of the burden of looking for scarce dollars to fix the refineries.

Privatising the refineries will engender the much-needed competition in the crude refining sub-sector of the oil industry. With a 650,000-bpd capacity and the government refineries’ inactivity, the Dangote Refinery has almost become a monopoly.

Thus, to create a truly competitive crude refining industry, the Federal Government needs to put its refineries in a position to compete through privatisation.

Adequate must be given to the 200,000 bpd BUA Refinery under construction and the planned 100,000 bpd Midoil Refinery to succeed in creating a robust, competitive industry.

In 2023, Americans consumed 376 million gallons of petrol daily. The private sector provided all this as the US government owned none of the 132 refineries in operation there. The United Kingdom and Canada also depend on the private sector refining for petroleum products.

Remarkably, Singapore, which produces crude oil of 20,170 bpd, refines 1.5 million bpd. President Bola Tinubu should learn from these countries.

However, the privatisation effort must be transparent and undergo serious due diligence. Buyers must be reputable foreign or local investors involved in the crude refining business.

Asset strippers, carpet baggers, and other investors who are not in that line of business should be excluded.

Nigeria must break the cycle of repeating past mistakes. The government has demonstrated a lack of discipline and ability necessary for managing state-owned enterprises successfully.

The parent company of the refineries, the NNPC, should be listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange if the Federal Government is serious about pursuing transparency and sector efficiency.

NNPC’s peers, such as Saudi Arabia’s Aramco, Brazil’s Petrobras, Malaysia’s Petronas, and others, are listed companies.

The NNPC was conservatively valued at $300 billion as of December 2024. An IPO has the potential to raise billions for investments in infrastructure and social goods, apart from injecting strong management.


Crucially, the government must thoroughly investigate why billions of dollars have been spent with so little to show for it. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission said it has commenced investigations into the tenure of former NNPC chief Mele Kyari, over allegations of abuse of office and misappropriation of funds. Kyari insists his hands are clean.

In May, the anti-graft agency said it had discovered a whopping N80 billion in a bank linked to a recently sacked managing director of a government refinery. All those found culpable should face appropriate sanctions.

https://punchng.com/nnpcs-refineries-of-waste/

Just the best caption for it.

When people like us questioned the falsehood, they called us haters, wailers etc. This is a country where people are easily turned zombies because of tribalism, they don't want anything negative said about their political gods

Trillions of naira spent on a refinery that didn't produce a litre if fuel, and Nigerians are not raising their voices.

Onanuga, omokri and others waiting for Obi to complain so they pounce of him. We sha deserve the crop of leaders we have. No ability, no honesty, no integrity, nothing nothing, just wave the tribalism wand, and see magic everywhere

Apt The more you look the less you see.

The Nigerian project itself has been rotten to the marrow. All sections are bad

Back to the say point again

Who will be punished for lying to Nigerians

DANGOTE REFINERY IS WORKING,THE BRAND NEW WALTER SMITH REFINERY IN IMO STATE HAS JUST STARTED…LET THE COMPETITION AND PRICE SLASHING START.

Another one ! ( In DJ Khaleed’s voice )

Funny race

For three decades, Nigeria has depended on petrol imports, incurring enormous costs, while its four public refineries, with a combined nameplate capacity of 445,000 bpd, remained largely inactive.

fraiud everwhere. No sincerity even at the highest level. This can only be obtainable in a situation where government aides realise that the government thrives in sychopancy

seems we're in agreement here. Perspective

Fraud Incorporated.

The biggest thieves: NNPCL

NNPCL suffers from three core dysfunctions:
1. Perpetual Political Interference – management decisions are hostage to shifting political interests.
2. Zero ability Culture – $20B+ has been funneled into refineries over 3 decades with no audit trail or tangible output.
3. Public Sector Operating Model – bloated staffing, zero profit imperative, and no performance metrics.

Refineries operate as fiscal blackholes, not industrial assets.

Most Practical Fix (Based on Global Models):

Step 1: Full Privatisation of Refineries

Sell off the four government-owned refineries in open, transparent international bidding – preferably to established global or regional refiners like Trafigura, Vitol, Aramco, or local credible players like Indorama.

Step 2: List NNPC Ltd on NSE + LSE (Dual Listing)

Emulate Saudi Aramco, Petrobras, and Petronas. This forces transparency, aligns shareholder interest, and unlocks billions in foreign capital.

Step 3: Set up Independent Refining Regulator

Strip the NNPC of its dual role as operator and regulator. Create a downstream industry regulator to ensure compliance, fair pricing, and environmental standards.

Step 4: Blacklist Asset Strippers

Ensure only firms with a proven history in refining and logistics can bid. Require turnaround plans and enforce performance benchmarks via contract clauses.

Step 5: Open Judicial Inquiry into Refinery Scandals

Hold former executives able (e.g., Mele Kyari case, $80bn frozen). Set a precedent that looters will be jailed and funds recovered.

Step 6: Rechannel Saved Subsidy Funds into Modular Refineries + Solar Infrastructure

Decentralize energy strategy by investing in 50,000 bpd modular refineries across oil-rich states, powered partly by solar, thus de-risking large-scale failure.

NNPC’s refinery woes are not technical, they’re structural and political. Only total divestiture, IPO, and prosecution of corruption can reboot Nigeria’s refining capacity and fiscal sanity.

This waste have made crooks and criminals billionaires. They and their dependants benefiting from the waste and feeding fat on huge expenditure exercises are the ones kicking against any privatisation

Only God can rescue Nigeria from this sharks that called themselves renewed hope. They're claiming to be Messiah and we're seeing something absolutely different. Until there's a clear explanation why the refineries are not working after that huge investment on maintenance nobody will take this government serious except their brainwashed followers.

In other news they said dangote refinery was the game changer
We’re still waiting for the economy turnaround and jobs (Abi dangote dn dey import cheap labor from katsina state?)🤣🤣
Helinues and co

Still looking forward to when the price of fuel will become so cheap again, this will help reduce the high cost of food.

Good write up.

You will never hear Reno say anything when it comes to this kind of news

Tinubu led APC government is built on lies and propaganda.

I disagree with punch

Punch is just an Election looser
Punch is an ipob obedient media outlet
Punch is a Wailer.
Punch doesn't like anything good news about Nigeria!
Punch is either dumb, deaf or too blind to see that Tinubu is working.

P. H refinery is working, me and Helinues and Kiss the truth bought fuel there before it recently shut down indefinitely for maintenance.

Tinubu is working!

BetterLife101:
I disagree with punch

It's within your rights to. Just be objective in your analysis or stance about the matter.

You will not see people like helinues in this type of thread.


Nigerian we just too quiet with govt. Tinubu is showing us shege and we are quiet.
He is going to borrow 34 trillion naira to be lavish and we are quiet. I don't know when we would start speaking up

When this obvious fraud was initiated,many people pointed it out and APC said they were haters.

I know tinubu will eventually sell it off as scrap and the same people will celebrate him as some magical financial wizard meanwhile they condemned the act when others suggested it

The three public refineries should be sold to viable competitors like BUA,INDORAMA ,MRS to bring about best of efficiencies from them all


Same thing should be done in Power sector

Spot piece 👌 👏 👍
Nigeria is being ruled by a bunch of self serving criminals 💯💯💯
Eldruggie and cohorts are all shades of lies, fraud and deceit!

So unfortunate!

very unfortunate

Tinubu Should be sacked come 2027

malali:
NNPCL suffers from three core dysfunctions:
1. Perpetual Political Interference – management decisions are hostage to shifting political interests.
2. Zero ability Culture – $20B+ has been funneled into refineries over 3 decades with no audit trail or tangible output.
3. Public Sector Operating Model – bloated staffing, zero profit imperative, and no performance metrics.

Refineries operate as fiscal blackholes, not industrial assets.

Most Practical Fix (Based on Global Models):

Step 1: Full Privatisation of Refineries

Sell off the four government-owned refineries in open, transparent international bidding – preferably to established global or regional refiners like Trafigura, Vitol, Aramco, or local credible players like Indorama.

Step 2: List NNPC Ltd on NSE + LSE (Dual Listing)

Emulate Saudi Aramco, Petrobras, and Petronas. This forces transparency, aligns shareholder interest, and unlocks billions in foreign capital.

Step 3: Set up Independent Refining Regulator

Strip the NNPC of its dual role as operator and regulator. Create a downstream industry regulator to ensure compliance, fair pricing, and environmental standards.

Step 4: Blacklist Asset Strippers

Ensure only firms with a proven history in refining and logistics can bid. Require turnaround plans and enforce performance benchmarks via contract clauses.

Step 5: Open Judicial Inquiry into Refinery Scandals

Hold former executives able (e.g., Mele Kyari case, $80bn frozen). Set a precedent that looters will be jailed and funds recovered.

Step 6: Rechannel Saved Subsidy Funds into Modular Refineries + Solar Infrastructure

Decentralize energy strategy by investing in 50,000 bpd modular refineries across oil-rich states, powered partly by solar, thus de-risking large-scale failure.

NNPC’s refinery woes are not technical, they’re structural and political. Only total divestiture, IPO, and prosecution of corruption can reboot Nigeria’s refining capacity and fiscal sanity.