The Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mr. Bayo Ojulari, says that June 2026 is the date to finalise the selection of technical partners for the Nigerian state-owned refineries, following years of failed rehabilitation efforts and a sharp decline in refining expertise.
Ojulari told journalists at the press briefing on Monday in Abuja that the Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna refineries has remained “well below international standards,” despite the turnaround efforts and that their products are commercially uncompetitive, especially compared to the privately owned Dangote Refinery.
He, however, explained that the current management is seeking competent private partners with proven refinery management experience to support the revival of the state-owned refineries.
Ojulari explained that the new strategy is to work only with private entities that already own and operate functioning refineries, stressing that the partnerships would be based strictly on verifiable track records and structured as business collaborations.
He stressed that any collaboration would be business‑driven, based on solid track records and structured as commercial (not state‑driven) arrangements.
Citing the Dangote Refinery as an example of how technical capacity has shifted abroad, he noted that many of the experts currently running such facilities are foreign because Nigeria has “lost capability over time.”
According to him, the years of underinvestment, weak governance, and collapsing technical capacity has left Nigeria unable to operate the refineries to global standards.
“Now, going forward, what are we really looking for? We realise that, you know, if you look at Dangote Refinery and look at the capabilities of the people running it, a lot of foreign people are there. We may not like it, but we need to review that capability, because we have lost the capability over time in terms of the overall capacity to run.
“So what we are looking at is some partnership with a private entity, just like you said, but private entities that have existing refineries that they are running and operating. So it’s not by mouth, right? So they would have that track record. And our intention is to partner with them as a business. Remember, we are not partnering as a government.
“We are partnering as a CAMA company. It’s very different. It’s a commercial arrangement where they bring in technical capacity, technical resources, and all of that, and we complement with the capability that we have, and we cooperate with them. But they lead the operation, because we want people who are in the game, So that’s what the intention is,” the report by Punch newspaper on Tuesday quoted Ojulari as saying.
He added that the NNPCL may redesign its refineries into hybrid plants to meet global product specifications and compete internationally. However, firm completion dates will only be announced after redesign and hybridisation plans are finalised. Ojulari said NNPCL expects a clearer timetable by mid-2026.
GIK/APA