Nigeria's state-owned refineries were operating at a "monumental loss," according to Bayo Ojulari, Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited. His management team was forced to halt operations in order to prevent additional financial drain.

Ojulari revealed the economic and operational difficulties facing NNPC's refining assets on Wednesday in Abuja at a fireside discussion titled "Securing Nigeria’s Energy Future" at the Nigeria International Energy Summit 2026.


He claimed that because of the enormous investments made over the years and the high expectations placed on the refineries, the public's wrath was justified.

On the refineries, Nigerians were angry. A lot of money has been spent, and expectations were very high. So we were under extreme pressure, extreme pressure,” Ojulari said.

Having worked mostly in the upstream industry for the majority of his career, he admitted that refining was not his core area of expertise when he joined office, but he emphasised that responsibility required him to pick things up quickly.

Due to my upstream background, I had a steep learning curve. You have to pick things up quickly since you are responsible. If not, there is no way out," he stated.

According to Ojulari, his management team's careful examination of the refinery's operations promptly exposed the difficult financial facts.

He said that although NNPC supplied crude to the refineries on a monthly basis, utilisation remained between 50 and 55 percent, resulting in significant value losses.

He disclosed that NNPC was supplying crude to the refineries every month, but utilisation remained at about 50 to 55 per cent, leading to substantial value losses.

“We were spending a lot of money on operations, a lot of money on contractors. But when you look at the net, we were just leaking away value,” Ojulari said.

Even more worrying, he said, was that there was no realistic plan in place to stem the losses.

“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 added.

Ojulari said his administration’s first major decision was to suspend refinery operations to stop further financial losses and enable a swift reassessment.

"We made the decision to halt the refinery and perform a brief inspection. We intended to reopen and work on them if everything lined up," he stated.

Using the Port Harcourt Refinery as an example, he disclosed that a portion of the value erosion was caused by the subpar products being produced.

Ojulari acknowledged that the decision to stop operations was politically sensitive because NNPC has historically faced pressure to maintain refineries in order to ensure fuel supply.

"There was a lot of political pressure to maintain the refinery product. However, you can't sleep with that after being schooled for more than 35 years to concentrate on profitability and commerciality," he stated.