NNPCL To Sell Port Harcourt, Warri, Kaduna Refineries After Spending $18b For Repairs
NNPC mulls refineries sale after Dangote’s verdict.
THE group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Bayo Ojulari, said plans are at an advanced stage to sell off Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna after spending about $18b for repairs.
This is coming a few days after Alhaji Aliko Dangote, President of Dangotee Group, said the Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna refineries may never work again.
Ojulari said the company is, among other options, considering selling the refineries because the rehabilitation works were not yielding the desired results due to how obsolete the facilities have become over the years.
Ojulari, in an interview with _Bloomberg_ , on Thursday in Vienna, Austria, stating that the country had invested heavily in the refineries without seeing any tangible results.
His comments were in sharp contrast with those of his predecessor, who told Nigerians in November 2024 that all the refineries would resume full operations.
Speaking with _Bloomberg_ on Thursday at the 9th OPEC International Seminar, Ojulari said a strategic review of NNPC’s refinery operations is underway and expected to be concluded before the end of the year.
“We’re reviewing all our refinery strategies now. We hope before the end of the year, we’ll be able to conclude that review. That review may lead to us doing things slightly differently,” he stated.
Asked if that could include selling off the refineries, Ojulari said, “What we’re saying is that sale is not out of the question. All the options are on the table, to be frank, but that decision will be based on the outcome of the reviews we’re doing now.”
Like Dangote, Ojulari attributed some of the setbacks to outdated infrastructure and underperforming technologies. “On refineries, we made quite a lot of investment over the last several years and brought in a lot of technologies, but we’ve been challenged.
“Some of those technologies have not worked as we expected so far. But also, as you know, when you’re refining a very old refinery that has been abandoned for some time, what we’re finding is that it’s becoming a little bit more complicated,” he said.
Ojulari took over from Kyari in April after President Bola Tinubu relieved the former NNPC boss of his appointment. Kyari spearheaded the turnaround maintenance of the facilities, with assurances that they would be revamped.
SOURCE: PUNCH
