The Pathfinder
Thursday July 31, 2025
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Group Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), Bashir Bayo Ojulari, has said that there is no plan to sell the Port Harcourt Refinery.
Rather, the NNPCL will raise additional funds to complete the rehabilitation of the refinery and the other two refineries it operates.
Bayo Ojulari, made the announcement during a company-wide town hall meeting at the NNPC Towers in Abuja, ending weeks of speculation over the future of the country’s most prominent state-owned refining asset.
Within two decades, from 2002 to 2012, NNPC secured funding approval of over N16tn for the turnaround maintenance of the Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna refineries. It is also actively exploring advanced technical partnerships as part of a renewed strategy to accelerate the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt refinery.
This was because the state-owned oil firm has officially ruled out the sale of the Port Harcourt Refining Company, reaffirming its commitment to completing high-grade rehabilitation and retention of the plant.
A statement by the company management on Wednesday read, “The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has officially ruled out the sale of the Port Harcourt Refining Company, reaffirming its commitment to completing high-grade rehabilitation and retention of the plant.”
He described selling the Port Harcourt Refining Company as “ill-advised and sub-commercial.” Ojulari’s remarks come amid rising public concern sparked by his earlier comments at the 2025 OPEC Seminar in Vienna, where he said “all options are on the table” regarding the future of Nigeria’s refineries.
The statement, released on the same day Dangote Group President Alhaji Aliko Dangote expressed doubts about the viability of the state-owned refineries, triggered a wave of speculation that a sale might be imminent.
According to Ojulari, the new position of the firm isn’t a shift. Rather, it is informed by ongoing detailed technical and financial reviews of the Port Harcourt, Kaduna, and Warri refineries.
The statement added, “The ongoing review indicates that the earlier decision to operate the Port Harcourt refinery, before full completion of its rehabilitation, was ill-informed and subcommercial.
“Although progress is being made on all three, the emerging outlook calls for more advanced technical partnerships to complete and high-grade the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt refinery. Thus, selling is highly unlikely as it would lead to further value erosion.”
In a reaction, the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria commended the plan by the company not to sell the Port Harcourt Refinery, insisting that the project is already 90 per cent completed and should be concluded by the original contractors.
The National Publicity Secretary of IPMAN, Chinedu Ukadike, who made the position known in a telephone interview with our correspondent on Wednesday, said it would be illogical to consider a sale after so much investment and progress on the rehabilitation work.
“Yes. There is no longer a need to sell the Port Harcourt refinery because it is 90 per cent completed. If they sell it now, it doesn’t make sense; nothing would be left for them,” Ukadike said.
He, however, questioned why the oil firm is searching for new technical partners to complete the project, warning that such moves may further delay the refinery’s eventual operation.
“Why are they looking for new technical partners? What happened to Tecnimont, who already built the refinery to a logical conclusion? NNPCL should just pay them,” he queried.
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