The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has confessed to burning through a staggering N13.2 trillion on the country’s three state-owned refineries over just two years, even as the facilities hemorrhaged losses and failed to produce fuel at viable levels. The jaw-dropping revelation came from NNPC’s Group Chief Executive Officer, Bayo Ojulari, who publicly admitted the refineries had become a colossal financial drain, operating at what he called “a monumental loss to Nigeria.”
The figures paint a devastating picture of waste and mismanagement. NNPC’s 2024 financial statements reveal the Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna refineries collectively owed the national oil company about N4.52 trillion in 2023, with that debt ballooning to N8.67 trillion by the end of 2024. The funds were supposedly channeled into turnaround maintenance, operations, and bank charges during the tenure of former boss Mele Kyari.
But Ojulari’s stark assessment suggests those billions achieved nothing. “The first thing that became clear, and I want to say this very clearly, is that we were running at a monumental loss to Nigeria. We were just wasting money. I can say that confidently now,” he told industry leaders at the Nigeria International Energy Summit 2026.
Port Harcourt refinery absorbed the largest share of the financial carnage, with its obligations to NNPC exploding from about N1.99 trillion in 2023 to N4.22 trillion in 2024, an increase of more than N2.22 trillion in just one year. Despite this tsunami of spending, the refinery recorded zero receivables in both years, meaning not a single naira came back from operations.
Warri refinery’s debt climbed from about N1.17 trillion in 2023 to N2.06 trillion in 2024, while Kaduna refinery saw its obligations surge from about N1.36 trillion to N2.39 trillion over the same period. All three facilities continued to be fed crude oil monthly, yet performance remained pathetically weak.
“We were pumping crude into the refineries every month. But utilisation was around 50 to 55 per cent. We were spending a lot of money on operations and contractors. But when you look at the net, we were just leaking away value,” Ojulari revealed.
What troubled the new management most was the complete absence of any credible recovery path despite the astronomical investment. “Sometimes you make a loss during investment, but you have a line of sight to recovery. That line of sight was not clear here,” he explained, adding that public anger over the refineries was justified given the scale of funds committed over the years.
The confession vindicates predictions by business mogul Aliko Dangote, who said last year that government refineries may never work again despite $18 billion spent on the facilities. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo shared similar doubts, questioning why NNPC kept insisting it could revamp the plants when it clearly couldn’t deliver.
The gravity of the losses forced Ojulari to halt refinery operations entirely to prevent further value destruction and allow for comprehensive reassessment of the assets. Nigerians now wait anxiously to see whether the new NNPC boss can turn around what has become one of the most expensive failures in the nation’s oil sector history.
Source: punchng.com