The Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Bayo Ojulari, has revealed that the Port Harcourt refinery has been a drain on the nation’s resources, describing past narratives about its functionality as propaganda.
Ojulari disclosed this on Thursday in Abuja while hosting a delegation from the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), led by its president, Festus Osifo.
He said that under his review, the refinery was found to be operating far below capacity, losing between ₦300 million and ₦500 million monthly due to inefficiencies.
“When I resumed, one of the first priorities I focused on was the refineries, to have a quick review, to see whether we could quickly fix it,” Ojulari explained.
“What I found is that we were losing between ₦300 million to ₦500 million on a monthly basis in the overall refinery. In Port Harcourt, we were pumping about 950,000 barrels as cargo, but when we checked the balance, less than 40 percent of what was going in was coming out.”
He added that the refinery’s design flaws and years of neglect meant it could only produce mid-grade fuel at a significant loss.
“That was why we could not properly produce premium motor spirit (PMS). The mid-grade product we were producing was at a huge loss. So, we stopped operations to avoid wasting more public resources,” he said.
Ojulari stressed that President Bola Tinubu did not pressure him to sustain the losses for political reasons, but rather gave him a clear mandate to pursue sustainable reforms.
“The mandate I was given is to look at the baseline and ensure that whatever we’re doing going forward sustainably works. There’s no need for us to pretend,” he said.
He reiterated that NNPC has no plans to sell off the Port Harcourt refinery but is committed to completing a comprehensive rehabilitation to make it profitable and create sustainable jobs.
