NNPCL Boss, Bayo Ojulari has spoken on sale of Port Harcourt Refinery amid accountability controversy.

NaijaOnPoint Nigeria reports that amid growing public scrutiny and mounting controversy over the operations of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), the Group Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Bayo Ojulari, has addressed rumors regarding the sale of the Port Harcourt Refining Company.

Speaking during a town hall meeting held at the NNPC Towers in Abuja on Wednesday, Ojulari firmly dismissed claims that the Port Harcourt refinery would be sold off, clarifying that the company is instead fully focused on a comprehensive, high-level rehabilitation of the facility.

“We are not selling the Port Harcourt refinery. What we are doing is a technically robust rehabilitation to bring it back to optimal production. Past attempts at partial operations were ill-informed and not commercially viable,” Ojulari said.

This statement comes at a time when NNPCL faces intense public backlash over issues such as lingering fuel import dependency, lack of transparency in subsidy spending, delays in completing key energy infrastructure projects and financial inconsistencies amounting to ₦210 trillion, uncovered in its audited financial statements from 2017 to 2023. Critics have questioned the pace and direction of NNPCL’s reforms, calling for more accountability in its operations.

Refinery Project Still Ongoing

NNPCL confirmed that the Port Harcourt refinery, which is Nigeria’s largest state-owned refining complex, is undergoing phased rehabilitation in partnership with Italian contractor Tecnimont, a subsidiary of the Maire Tecnimont Group. The project, valued at $1.5 billion, began in 2021 under the Buhari administration and has seen slow but steady progress.

Why It Matters

The Port Harcourt refinery consists of two units:

A 60,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) plant commissioned in 1965
A 150,000 bpd plant added in 1989

Combined, they are central to Nigeria’s goal of achieving energy self-sufficiency and reducing reliance on imported fuel. The refinery’s prolonged downtime and repeated delays in full rehabilitation have been a source of national frustration, especially as Nigerians grapple with fuel scarcity and rising pump prices.