February 22, (THEWILL) — While the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has initiated the process of privatising the underperforming state-owned refineries, members of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) persist in their coercive efforts that suggest a contrary approach.
In November 2025, NNPC Limited established a new deadline of June 2026 to finalize the selection of private partners who will assume technical operations of the nation’s state-owned refineries under a revised privatisation framework.
During a media briefing in Abuja in early February 2026, Engr. Bayo Ojulari, the Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC Ltd, revealed that the Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna refineries are still significantly below international operational standards, despite ongoing rehabilitation initiatives. He emphasised that the existing configurations of the refining facilities are incapable of producing fuels that are competitive either locally or internationally, particularly when compared to the output from the privately owned Dangote Refinery.
As a result, NNPC Ltd is now seeking to collaborate with private-sector operators who currently manage operational refineries and can provide demonstrable technical expertise. Ojulari stated that the intended partnerships would be organised as entirely commercial agreements, with private operators anticipated to spearhead refinery operations while NNPC Ltd offers supplementary capabilities.
PENGASSAN’s detour
In an unexpected turn of events, the leader of PENGASSAN, Festus Osifo, highlighted the “revived” old Port Harcourt refinery during a local television program on Tuesday, February 10, 2026. He stated that the facility has been restored to approximately 90 percent of its capacity and could resume operations within a week, contingent upon the decision of the NNPC Limited to proceed.
“As of today, you can start the old Port Harcourt refinery, and it will function. You can put it on today, and it will function,” Osifo said. “However, NNPCL as a company is there to make a profit. So, if they want to start it today, within the next one week, they can bring it back to life.”
Osifo went further to emphasise that the funds spent on rehabilitating the refinery were not wasted as the critical infrastructure had been upgraded.
“The money that was thrown into the Port Harcourt refinery is not a loss. Almost all the compressors were changed, the control rooms were changed, and the panels were all changed. The contractors did not take them away.
“If you evaluate the refinery today, it will be much more valuable than the state it was in before the rehabilitation,” Osifo said.
The Port Harcourt Refining Company was reopened in November 2024 following years of inactivity as part of the rehabilitation program; however, it was closed once more in May 2025 due to operational difficulties. Currently, operations at the facility are still on hold.
NNPC’s position
Osifo’s declaration followed Ojulari’s remarks at an industry event, where he stated that politicians and stakeholders had exerted significant pressure to keep refinery operations running despite increasing losses. However, he emphasised that his management team had placed a higher priority on profitability rather than political convenience.
“There were political pressures to keep the refinery running. There was a lot of pressure,” Ojulari said at the Nigerian International Energy Summit in Abuja on February 3, 2026, drawing attention to the dilemma facing executives “trained for over 35 years with blinkers on to look at commerciality and profitability.”
Ojulari acknowledged that the state oil giant is “fundamentally unprepared” to manage profitable refineries, disclosing that the facilities were operating at utilisation rates as low as 50-55 percent while transforming valuable crude into inferior-grade products valued at less than the feedstock.
“We were spending a lot of money on operations, a lot of money on contractors, but if you look at the net, we’re just leaking away a lot of value,” he told the conference, describing how government spending on refineries and contractors bore no relation to the value generated.
The company has now adopted a board-approved strategy to secure joint venture partners with proven refinery operating track records. “We’re not looking for contractors. We’re looking for an entity that runs refineries,” Ojulari emphasised.
The GCEO noted that if the original rehabilitation plan is followed without adjustments, the refineries would still fall short of global standards and produce fuels below the Euro-V quality currently being delivered by the Dangote plant.
The recent initiative by organised labour in the oil industry to recommence operations at the Port Harcourt refinery and enhance the rehabilitation efforts for the Warri and Kaduna refineries continues to raise concerns among industry participants and stakeholders.
NASS, experts’ reaction
On October 24, 2023, the Senate established an ad-hoc committee tasked with investigating all contracts totalling over N11.35 trillion that were awarded for the rehabilitation of the four non-operational refineries in the nation, which have yielded no results. Ten months following the Senate’s initiation of the elusive investigation into the ongoing maintenance of Nigeria’s non-functional refineries, both the upper and lower legislative chambers began a similar inquiry in August 2024. The result was a profound silence.
Observers in the industry have voiced their concerns regarding the stance of oil workers and other stakeholders who continue to resist the privatization of the inactive refineries. Instead, they advocate for the government to persist in expending funds on repairing the non-functional facilities.
For instance, during the PENGASSAN national executive council meeting held in Lagos in January 2026, Osifo urged the government to restore functionality to the refineries. He contended that, in addition to enhancing energy security, revitalising the refineries would create both primary and secondary employment opportunities.
“We will also have the opportunity of getting a lot of foreign exchange when these refineries are working because the value chain is quite enormous. For us in PENGASSAN, we will continually push until all the refineries are working,” he said.
Gideon Agbedo an Energy Lawyer/Analyst disagrees with PENGASSAN’s position that the government should resume operations at the Port Harcourt refinery, arguing that previous efforts yielded no results. He noted that Dangote Refinery has opened a new vista in Nigeria’s energy ecosystem which should be the country’s operating standard.
“I don’t agree with PENGASSAN. The government has had its moment to fix the refineries and failed. To try again will be akin to madness: Trying to do the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
“In addition, with the newer Dangote refinery and the expected BUA refinery, the private sector has shown capacity in refining. There is no reason for government refineries. In any case, the government refineries with their old technology and inefficient processes may not be able to compete with the private sector,” Agbedo told THEWILL in a note.
Previously, NNPC Ltd had in August 2024, announced plans to concession the facilities, having committed enormous sums of taxpayers’ money in fixing the plants; the announcement was a pleasant surprise to Nigerians.
In a circular on its website, the national oil company said, “The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) is seeking to engage reputable and credible Operations & Maintenance (O&M) companies to operate and maintain two of its refineries, Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company (WRPC) and Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company (KRPC), to ensure reliability and sustainability to meet the nation’s fuel supply and energy security obligations.” The outcome of this move was not disclosed.
A financial and oil expert, Nnaemeka Obiaraeri, had said that “The ideal situation would be to sell off the refineries to private investors. If NNPC Ltd still wants to be involved, they should have equity because it has been proved that NNPC Ltd cannot operate the refineries. They should not be the operator.
“If Dangote had acquired those refineries, we would have gone far in resolving the lingering energy challenges that now confront the nation in terms of producing what we require as a country. These refineries should be sold out,” Obiaraeri said.
Sam Diala is a Bloomberg Certified Financial Journalist with over a decade of experience in reporting Business and Economy. He is Business Editor at THEWILL Newspaper, and believes that work, not wishes, creates wealth.
