The Nigerian Nationwide Petroleum Firm Restricted (NNPC Ltd.) has revealed that it shut down Nigeria’s state-owned refineries after inside assessments confirmed they had been working at “monumental losses” and destroying nationwide worth.
The disclosure was made by the Group Chief Government Officer of NNPC Ltd., Mr Bashir Ojulari, throughout a Fireplace Chat on Securing Nigeria’s Power Future on the Nigeria Worldwide Power Summit (NIES) 2026 held in Abuja on Wednesday.
In line with Ojulari, the choice adopted an in depth technical and industrial assessment triggered by mounting public anger over years of heavy funding within the refineries with little to point out when it comes to efficiency, forcing the corporate to confront the {economic} realities of its operations.
Ojulari mentioned the refineries turned a right away precedence when his management crew assumed workplace, given the depth of public scrutiny and expectations surrounding their rehabilitation.
He defined that regardless of crude oil being equipped month-to-month, capability utilisation averaged simply 50 to 55 per cent, whereas working bills and contractor prices continued to escalate, making continued operations economically unjustifiable.
Nigeria’s state-owned refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna have lengthy struggled with power underperformance regardless of repeated turnaround upkeep efforts and billions of naira in public spending.
These structural weaknesses, he mentioned, meant that even when the refineries had been working, they had been eroding worth quite than creating it.
Ojulari famous that his background in upstream oil and fuel meant that his crew needed to endure what he described as a “vertical studying curve” to totally perceive the economics of the downstream sector.
Ojulari harassed that this method was about industrial sustainability, not asset stripping.
NNPC’s feedback come amid sustained scrutiny over the destiny of Nigeria’s refineries and broader downstream reforms.
In December, the Nigerian {Economic} Summit Group (NESG) renewed requires the Federal Authorities to fast-track the privatisation of state-owned refineries, arguing that it could enhance home refining capability and scale back Nigeria’s dependence on imported petroleum merchandise.
