JUST IN: Ojulari Admits NNPC Refineries Are Unsustainable

Nigerian state-owned refineries were operating at what he called a “monumental loss,” according to Bayo Ojulari, Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL). This forced his management team to halt operations in order to prevent additional financial harm to the nation.

In an uncommon and direct evaluation of the operational and financial reality of the country’s refining assets, Ojulari made the revelation on Wednesday in Abuja at a fireside discussion titled “Securing Nigeria’s Energy Future” at the Nigeria International Energy Summit 2026.

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 substantial sums of public money that had been invested over the years.

Nigerians were furious about the refineries. Expectations were high, and a lot of money was spent. Therefore, we were under tremendous pressure,” he stated.

Nigeria’s four state-owned refineries—Port Harcourt (two plants), Warri, and Kaduna—have reportedly spent billions of dollars on turnaround maintenance and rehabilitation over the years, but they have mostly failed to produce consistently.

“I Needed to Pick Things Up Quickly.”
After spending the most of his professional career in the upstream oil industry, Ojulari acknowledged that refining was not his area of expertise when he took office.

My learning curve was vertical because of my upstream background. You have to pick things up quickly since you are responsible. “There’s no way out otherwise,” he stated.

Once his crew was moved in, he said, accountability required a quick and honest evaluation of the refineries.

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

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

He clarified that although NNPC was supplying crude oil cargoes to the refineries on a monthly basis, utilization was only between 50 and 55 percent, which led to significant value degradation.

“We were using a lot of funds for both operations and contractors.” However, when you look at the internet, we were simply losing value,” he remarked.

Ojulari said that the lack of a viable strategy to undo the losses was more concerning.

“Investing can sometimes result in a loss, but there is a path to recovery. This was not a clear line of sight, he said.

He said that this ambiguity rendered ongoing activities fiscally untenable.

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

“We made the decision to halt the refinery and conduct a brief inspection. “We intended to reopen and work on them if everything lined up,” he stated.

He claimed that in order to stop additional losses and reevaluate the plants’ sustainability, they had to be shut down.

Citing the Port Harcourt Refinery as an example, the NNPC chairman further revealed that a portion of the losses were caused by the caliber of the goods being produced.

“Mid-grade products were being produced from the crude we were transporting into Port Harcourt. It was a waste, he claimed, when you add up their worth in relation to what you contributed.

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

“There was a lot of political pressure to maintain the refinery product.” But you can’t sleep with that after being taught for more than 35 years to prioritize commerciality and profitability,” he remarked.

For decades, Nigeria’s refineries have ran much below capacity, occasionally operating at single-digit utilization or ceasing operations completely. Africa’s biggest oil producer is now mostly dependent on imported refined petroleum products as a result.

While 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 by a NNPC CEO that refinery operations could not be sustained economically under the current circumstances. Under the Petroleum Industry Act, NNPC is increasingly enforcing commercial discipline, especially in politically delicate areas like domestic refining, as the comments highlight.