Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) Group Chief Executive Officer Bayo Ojulari disclosed that the country’s state-owned refineries were experiencing what he called a “monumental loss,” which prompted his management team to suspend operations in order to prevent additional financial harm to the nation.
When Ojulari gave a rare and direct assessment of the operational and commercial reality of the country’s refining assets on Wednesday in Abuja at a fireside chat titled “Securing Nigeria’s Energy Future” at the Nigeria International Energy Summit 2026, he made the revelation.
The head of the NNPC acknowledged the general public’s 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.
People in Nigeria were upset over the refineries. The expectations were enormous, and a lot of money was spent. Thus, he continued, “we were under tremendous pressure.”
The four state-owned refineries in Nigeria—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 Learn Quickly.”
Having worked in the upstream oil industry for the majority of his career, Ojulari acknowledged that he was not an expert in refining when he took government.
Because of my upstream background, my learning curve was vertical. Because of your accountability, you need to pick things up quickly. “There is no escape otherwise,” he stated.
Accountability, he said, required a quick and candid evaluation of the refineries after his team had settled in.
Ojulari stated that following a thorough operational evaluation, the actual financial state of the refineries became evident almost quickly. “We Were Running At A Monumental Loss.”
“The first thing that became evident was that we were losing badly to Nigeria, and I want to state this very frankly. We were merely squandering money. “I can now confidently say that,” he said.
He clarified that although NNPC was supplying crude oil cargoes to the refineries on a regular basis, utilization was only between 50 and 55 percent, which drastically reduced value.
“We were heavily investing in both operations and contractors. However, we were simply losing value when you looked at the net,” he remarked.
According to Ojulari, the lack of a solid plan to undo the losses was more concerning.
“Investing can occasionally result in a loss, but there is a path to recovery.” Here, that line of sight was obscured, he said.
He claimed that because of this ambiguity, it was not economically justified to continue operations.
Ojulari disclosed that one of his administration’s first significant moves was to stop refinery operations.
We chose to halt the refinery and conduct a brief inspection. “If everything lined up, we were going to reopen and work on them,” he said.
He claimed that closing the facilities was essential to stop additional losses while reevaluating their viability.
Citing the Port Harcourt Refinery as an example, the NNPC chairman further revealed that a portion of the losses were caused by the quality of the goods being produced.
“We were bringing in crude that was yielding goods of a moderate quality to Port Harcourt. He stated, “It was a waste when you add up their value compared to what you put in.”
Ojulari said that the decision to stop operations was politically delicate because NNPC has long been under pressure to maintain refineries in order to guarantee fuel supply.
“There was intense political pressure to maintain the refinery product. You cannot sleep with it, though, he remarked, after being taught for more than 35 years to prioritize commerciality and profitability.
For many years, the refineries in Nigeria have been operating well below capacity, often operating at single-digit utilization or shutting down completely. Because of this, the biggest oil producer in Africa is now mostly dependent on imported refined petroleum products.
Public scrutiny of NNPC’s effectiveness increased between 2015 and 2023 as a result of several billion-dollar rehabilitation contracts approved by consecutive administrations, despite the fact that local refining production remained minimal.
Ojulari’s comments are among the most direct acknowledgements made by a NNPC CEO that it was not economically feasible to maintain refining operations under the current circumstances. According to the Petroleum Industry Act, NNPC is increasingly implementing business discipline, especially in politically delicate areas like domestic refining, as the comments highlight.
