NNPC CEO Says State-Owned Refineries Were Operated at Huge Losses

The Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Bashir Bayo Ojulari, has revealed that Nigeria’s state-owned refineries were running at “monumental loss”, prompting his management to halt their operations to stop further financial waste.

Ojulari made the disclosure on Wednesday in Abuja while speaking at the Nigeria International Energy Summit 2026, where he offered a rare insight into the poor commercial performance of the nation’s refining assets.

According to the NNPCL boss, ongoing operations at refineries such as Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna were losing money because utilisation rates were low — around 50–55 per cent, even as crude continued to be pumped into the plants. This mismatch, he explained, resulted in “value leakage” for the company and the country.

Ojulari said the decision to stop operations was taken after an internal review showed the facilities were consistently draining public funds without a clear plan for profitability. In his words, the refineries were “just wasting money,” especially as products like mid-grade fuels generated little commercial value compared with the crude input costs.

He also acknowledged the political sensitivity of shutting down the plants — decisions that in the past were taken partly to ensure fuel supply continuity — but insisted that commercial discipline and financial sustainability must now guide NNPCL strategy.

The four major state-owned refineries, long plagued by under-utilisation and costly rehabilitations, have struggled for years to operate profitably despite repeated rounds of maintenance and large investments.

Ojulari’s statements mark one of the clearest admissions from NNPCL leadership that the traditional model of running these refineries has been economically unjustifiable, and suggest a shift toward reassessment and potential strategic partnerships or other structural reforms to address the longstanding challenges in Nigeria’s refining sector.

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