₦airaland Forum

The Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Bayo Ojulari, has revealed that Nigeria’s state-owned refineries were operating at what he described as a “monumental loss”, forcing his management team to halt operations to stop further financial damage to the country.

Ojulari made the disclosure on Wednesday in Abuja during a fireside chat titled “Securing Nigeria’s Energy Future” at the Nigeria International Energy Summit 2026, where he offered a rare and blunt assessment of the operational and commercial realities of the nation’s refining assets.

The NNPC boss acknowledged widespread public frustration over the refineries, noting that Nigerians had every reason to be upset considering the huge public funds invested over the years.

“On the refineries, Nigerians were angry. A lot of money has been spent, and expectations were very high. So we were under extreme pressure, extreme pressure,” he said.

Naija News reports that Nigeria’s four state-owned refineries, Port Harcourt (two plants), Warri and Kaduna, have consumed billions of dollars in rehabilitation and turnaround maintenance costs over decades, yet have largely failed to deliver sustained output.
Ojulari admitted that refining was not his area of expertise when he assumed office, having spent most of his professional career in the upstream oil sector.

“My background is upstream, so I was on a vertical learning curve. You are accountable, so you must learn very quickly. Otherwise, there is no escape,” he said.

According to him, accountability demanded a rapid and honest assessment of the refineries once his team settled in.

‘We Were Running At A Monumental Loss’
Ojulari said the true financial condition of the refineries became clear almost immediately after a detailed operational review.

“The first thing that became clear, and I want to say this very clearly, is that we were running at a monumental loss to Nigeria. We were just wasting money. I can say that confidently now,” he declared.

He explained that NNPC was feeding crude oil cargoes into the refineries monthly, yet utilisation hovered between 50 and 55 per cent, resulting in severe value erosion.

“We were spending a lot of money on operations, a lot of money on contractors. But when you look at the net, we were just leaking away value,” he said.

More worrying, Ojulari said, was the absence of any credible plan to reverse the losses.

“Sometimes you make a loss during investment, but you have a line of sight to recovery. That line of sight was not clear here,” he noted.
This lack of clarity, he said, made continued operations economically unjustifiable.
Ojulari revealed that halting refinery operations was one of the first major decisions taken by his administration.

“We decided to stop the refinery and do a quick check. We planned that if things were lined up, we would reopen and work on them,” he said.

According to him, shutting down the facilities was necessary to prevent further losses while reassessing their viability.

The NNPC chief further disclosed that part of the losses stemmed from the quality of products being produced, citing the Port Harcourt Refinery as an example.

“The crude we were taking into Port Harcourt was producing mid-grade products. When you aggregate their value compared to what you put in, it was a waste,” he said.

Ojulari acknowledged that the decision to halt operations was politically sensitive, given longstanding pressure on NNPC to keep refineries running to ensure fuel supply.

“There were political pressures to keep the refinery product, lots of pressure. But when you have been trained for over 35 years to focus on commerciality and profitability, you can’t sleep with that,” he said.

Nigeria’s refineries have for decades operated far below capacity, at times running at single-digit utilisation or shutting down entirely. This has forced Africa’s largest oil producer to rely heavily on imported refined petroleum products.

Between 2015 and 2023, successive administrations approved multiple rehabilitation contracts worth billions of dollars, yet domestic refining output remained negligible, intensifying public scrutiny of NNPC’s efficiency.

Ojulari’s remarks represent one of the most candid admissions by an NNPC chief executive that continued refinery operations, under existing conditions, were economically unsustainable. The comments underscore a broader shift within NNPC, under the Petroleum Industry Act, toward enforcing commercial discipline, even in politically sensitive areas such as domestic refining.

Hand it over to oando make we rest.

Sebi APC folks were screaming when Tinubu funneled outrageous amounts into warri refinery?

APC is a cancer to Nigeria and Nigerians. And they must be excised.

PlasmaTV:
Sebi APC folks were screaming when Tinubu funneled outrageous amounts into warri refinery?

APC is a cancer to Nigeria and Nigerians. And they must be excised.

You have said it all.....they all insulted baba ObJ bcus he said NNPC can't b fixed

Obasanjo, the "Igboman" from Anambra according to darling daddy suppoters aka Tinubu's data bois. They insulted Obasanjo because he said nothing but the truth.

Thesame way PO has been saying the truth about the the incompetence and failures of the fake certificate holder and he is being called names today. When Atiku said those refineries are destined for sale, thesame insults was melted to him.

I have told Nigerians many times that any news from Apc and Tinubu's data bois must never be believed, accepted or seen as the truth, I mean that ish.

They have been posting fake Videos of Roads all over the country to promote the fake achievements of the fake certificate holder just like they promoted the fake achievements of their darling daddy after which they blamed him for all Nigerian's problems because their messiah Tinubu' is also woefully failing. Nigerians for how long these set of propagandists will continue to deceive some gullibles with fathom achievements is beyond sane Nigerians

Jaylord12:
You have said it all.....they all insulted baba ObJ bcus he said NNPC can't b fixed

Very annoying and mischievous folks

PlasmaTV:
Very annoying and mischievous folks

I don't expect anything good from an APC support,so they can't annoy me at all neither can they disappoint me.

When we were telling them, they called us haters

That's about 3billion dollars wasted in a space of about 3 years just for nonsense PR and looting without solving the problem...

Tinubu and his supporters spend money and resources on nonsense to achieve nonsense and believe that they are making sense while leaving the main problem unsolved.

Obasanjo said it and that foul uncouth Bayo Onanuga insulted him. Finally the truth is out. Imagine if it is Peter Obi that said this now. Meanwhile why is Mela Kyari not being prosecuted for wasting $1.5M TAM on the flopped PH refinery?

If you're on nairaland and insulted baba obasanjo all to please APC, better go for deliverance

Public refineries can't work in a country that drinks corruption like drinkable water.

The first NNPC head to tell the truth. The bitter truth!

Their staff are essentially ghost workers who draw huge salaries and hefty allowances and bonus from a dead organization.

Where are the people that were insulting obasanjo for not honouring the invite to the Porthacort refinery? I thought they said it's working at 60% capacity? Yeye

Abi oooooo. Let them know

Something obj said openly with his full chest and folks insulated him. In sane climes, some people has to go down for that waste of money that happened in the name of TAM of refinaries

$1bn gone just like that... and we have an slowpoke called Bola Ahmed Tinubu as Petroleum minister 😒

Something that Obasanjo said decades ago...

Propaganda cannot airbrush reality.😂

Men just dey chop money, watch how they will work if sold fully 📌💯.

To think that I diots and online urchins were hailing those using this conduit to loot our common patrimony is the most bizarre thing I have seen in my entire existence.

Obasanjo a President said the refineries cannot work, f.ools like Bayo Onanuga were all over the space insulting him, giving fake stastictics.

We knew but we (the citizens)were handicapped.

money can never be wasted in Nigeria instead it can be stolen either by humans or animals.

Billions of dollars down the drain

We all know they will never work unless you sell them to Indians. This is old and stale news!

Wow....

Assuming this came from Peter Obi or Obidients, we for dey hear haters of Nigeria, bitter people, demarketers of Nigeria etc.

Now I'm waiting to see what slaves have to say

Mele Kyari and Emiefele, I no know which of these Buhari men show us shege pass.

It is unsustainable because of the pipelines used to transport crude oil which gets damaged by siphoning in various communities the pipeline passes.

Build Tanker Terminals to receive crude oil for NNPC Refineries like Dangote refinery, then you will see that NNPC Refineries are sustainable

This NNPC MD should think outside the box

And no body will be persecuted for wasting my hard earned money on this venture? Damn!
Yet, we sleep in darkness.
yet Algeria, Saudi Arabia all have state owned refinaries working. To god, nigeria is cursed but her citiznes are on tiktok fighting other african countries that are decades ahead of nigeria. Nigerians think individual money mainly stollen money and fraud money means a country has made it in life. If most Nigerians know what has been denied of them since they were born, they will scream. But will they even know? Nigerians were born in bad governance and most grew, died in bad governance. They dont know what it means to be well governed.

WeirdAlien:
We all know they will never work unless you sell them to Indians.

This is old and stale news!

This is what Atiku proposed for the refineries based on the successful privatisation of the petrochemicals division of NNPC to Indorama.

Why did we ridicule him for his suggestion in 2019

anonimi:
How Indorama sustains manufacturers, boosts Nigeria’s FX earnings

Indorama Eleme Petrochemicals Limited (IEPL) has emerged as a major value creator in the Nigerian economy. It is responsible for the survival, growth and sustenance of many manufacturing companies in Nigeria today. A large number of plastic and allied firms depend on the Eleme-based company for petrochemical resins (or polymer resins) which serve as their raw materials.

The petrochemical company is just one of the several subsidiaries of Indorama-Nigeria Group, which also comprises Indorama Eleme Fertilizer & Chemicals Limited (IEFCL), Indorama PET Nigeria Limited, and Indorama Port Operations.

Since Indorama Corporation of Indonesia became core investor in the old Eleme Petrochemicals Company Limited (EPCL) in 2006 through privatisation programme of the Federal Government, the group has become a game changer in the Nigerian economy.

The petrochemical company has solved the major challenge facing a number of manufacturers— poor access to raw materials. Rather than scramble for foreign exchange to import inputs, the company ensures that manufacturers have access to their critical raw materials, enabling them to save costs and improve margins.

The major resins used by plastic and allied companies are polyethylene and polypropylene. Indorama produces about 45 grades of these products for various industries. About 600 of such companies in Nigeria depend on IEPL for their survival. They are estimated to have over 90,000 workers.

https://businessday.ng/real-sector/article/how-indorama-sustains-manufacturers-boosts-nigerias-fx-earnings/

It shall never be well with tinubu and all his supporters. God punish u all.

kokoA:
Mele Kyari and Emiefele, I no know which of these Buhari men show us shege pass.

Neither of these two men has shown us anything nearly as shege as that Ayédèrú man in Aso Rock. What greater shege is there beyond making Buhari president, four years after calling him expired?

Has anything changed for better since then

We should sack the minister of Petroleum or ask him to resign ? Pls who is minister ? EFCC do your work,,,, Until we remove sentiments , Nigeria cannot move forward . It is on the premise that some section are asking for secession , Dont blame them .. This govt is a failure truth be told .