The Nigerian National Petroleum Company(NNPC) Limited has ruled out further rehabilitation of its refineries without a clear path to profitability, as the company seeks technical equity partners prepared to share responsibility for the performance of the facilities.
NNPC Group Chief Executive Officer, Bayo Ojulari, disclosed this on Tuesday in Abuja while fielding questions at a media engagement following the release of the company’s audited 2025 financial results.
NNPC reported a profit after tax of ₦7.2tn for 2025, up from ₦5.4tn in 2024, while revenue stood at ₦34.5tn.
Ojulari said lessons from previous refinery rehabilitation programmes had convinced NNPC to abandon arrangements where contractors were paid for repairs and operations without having a direct financial stake in the facilities’ long-term performance.
He said the company had also stopped using crude to fund rehabilitation arrangements that failed to produce positive commercial outcomes.
“Whoever is coming with us, we have to work together to make sure that the refinery can make money,” Ojulari said, stressing that NNPC would not proceed until it identified a credible pathway to profitability.
The approach is being pursued particularly for the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries, with prospective Chinese partners already involved in technical due diligence.
NNPC signed a memorandum of understanding in April with Sanjiang Chemical Company and Xinganchen (Fuzhou) Industrial Park Operation and Management Co Ltd for a potential technical equity partnership covering the two facilities.
The proposed arrangement includes rehabilitation, operation, maintenance and possible expansion into petrochemicals and gas-based industries.
Ojulari said prospective partners had conducted an intrusive, three-month assessment involving more than 30 senior engineers. He stressed that the process had not yet produced a final commercial agreement.
“We have not signed a final agreement yet,” he said, adding that negotiations would follow completion of the technical report and receipt of a formal proposal.
The NNPC boss also warned against attempts to reduce the value of the state-owned refineries to scrap.
“There are those who are prepared to buy these refineries as scrap,” he said, urging vigilance as the company pursues a commercially viable alternative.
The warning comes against the background of an NNPC statement issued in April, when the company denied claims that it was selling refinery scrap, equipment or components.
NNPC said at the time that it had issued no bids, tenders or approvals for such sales and warned that some individuals were falsely presenting themselves as company representatives.
The refineries have remained a major challenge for successive administrations, with the Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna facilities undergoing years of rehabilitation efforts without sustained commercial production.
NNPC has increasingly shifted its emphasis from simply restarting the plants to ensuring they can operate profitably and compete with modern refineries.
Ojulari said the objective was to deploy technology capable of taking the facilities beyond outdated configurations.
He also said NNPC was restructuring other businesses that could not demonstrate a pathway to profitability, arguing that the company must become capable of attracting capital rather than continually seeking it.
“Capital should be looking for you, not you looking for capital,” he said.
The immediate focus remains on completing technical assessments and determining whether the proposed partnerships can deliver sustainable, profitable refining operations before NNPC commits to a final agreement.
