UST IN: Ojulari Says Maintaining NNPC Refineries Was a Waste of Resources

Bayo Ojulari, the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), disclosed that the state-owned refineries in Nigeria were experiencing what he called a “monumental loss,” which compelled his management team to suspend operations in order to prevent additional financial harm to the nation.

During a fireside talk titled “Securing Nigeria’s Energy Future” at the Nigeria International Energy Summit 2026 on Wednesday in Abuja, Ojulari made the revelation. He also provided a unique and direct analysis of the operational and financial reality of the country’s refining assets.

The head of NNPC acknowledged the public’s general dissatisfaction with the refineries, pointing out that Nigerians had every right to be angry given the enormous sums of public money that had been invested over the years.

Nigerians on the refineries were upset. High expectations were set, and a significant amount of money was spent. We were therefore under tremendous strain,” he stated.

Despite spending billions of dollars on turnaround maintenance and rehabilitation over decades, Nigeria’s four state-owned refineries—Port Harcourt (two plants), Warri, and Kaduna—have reportedly failed to produce consistently.

“I Had to Learn Very Quickly”
Ojulari acknowledged that, having worked in the upstream oil industry for the majority of his professional career, refining was not his specialty when he took office.

“I was on a vertical learning curve because of my upstream background. Since you are responsible, you need to pick things up fast. If not, there is no way out,” he stated.

He claimed that once his team was established, accountability required a quick and candid evaluation of the refineries.

“We Were Running At A Monumental Loss” Ojulari stated that following a thorough operational evaluation, the refineries’ actual financial situation became evident almost immediately.

“The first thing that became apparent—and I want to make this very clear—was that we were losing badly to Nigeria. All we were doing was wasting money. “I can say that with confidence now,” he said.

NNPC was supplying crude oil cargoes to the refineries on a monthly basis, he continued, but utilization was only between 50 and 55 percent, which led to significant value loss.

“We were spending a lot of money on contractors and operations.” However, if you look at the internet, we were simply losing value,” he stated.

The lack of a viable plan to undo the losses, according to Ojulari, was more concerning.

“Investing can sometimes result in a loss, but there is a path to recovery.” He said, “That line of sight was not clear here.”

He said that ongoing operations were not economically justified due to this ambiguity.

One of his administration’s first significant moves, according to Ojulari, was to stop refinery operations.

We made the decision to pull over and quickly inspect the refinery. He stated, “We intended to reopen and work on them if everything lined up.”

He claimed that in order to stop additional losses while reevaluating the plants’ profitability, they had to be shut down.

Citing the Port Harcourt Refinery as an example, the NNPC chairman went on to reveal that a portion of the losses were caused by the quality of the goods being produced.

We were bringing crude into Port Harcourt, and it was yielding products of a moderate quality. “It was a waste when you add up their value in comparison to what you put in,” he stated.

Given the ongoing pressure on NNPC to maintain refineries in order to guarantee petroleum supply, Ojulari recognized that the decision to stop operations was politically delicate.

There was a lot of political pressure to maintain the refinery product. But that’s not acceptable when you’ve been taught for more than 35 years to prioritize commerciality and profitability,” he remarked.

For decades, Nigeria’s refineries have occasionally functioned at single-digit utilization or shut down completely, operating well below capacity. As a result, the biggest oil producer in Africa is now mostly dependent on imported refined petroleum products.

Although several billion-dollar rehabilitation contracts were granted by consecutive governments between 2015 and 2023, domestic refining output remained low, raising public concerns about NNPC’s effectiveness.

Ojulari’s comments are among the most direct acknowledgements made by a NNPC CEO that it was not economically viable to maintain refining operations under the current circumstances. The remarks highlight NNPC’s larger move under the Petroleum Industry Act to enforce business discipline, including in politically delicate fields like domestic refining.