Nigeria’s latest push to revive its state-owned refineries must move beyond rehabilitation promises and commissioning ceremonies, the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria has warned, as it calls for a binding agreement that makes contractors and technical partners accountable for actual production.
PETROAN backed President Bola Tinubu’s renewed commitment to restoring the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries, but said the initiative will only succeed if NNPC Ltd ties the proposed partnership to firm deadlines, guaranteed output and financial penalties for failure.
The association’s National President, Billy Gillis-Harry, said Tinubu’s observation that “ordinary flame and smoke of a refinery doesn’t mean it’s working” captured the central issue surrounding Nigeria’s refining assets: a refinery should be judged by what it produces and the value it creates, not by visible activity at its facilities.
PETROAN said future assessments should focus on throughput, availability, operating margins and return on capital. The position comes after years of rehabilitation spending that has failed to deliver sustained commercial operations at several government-owned plants.
According to the association, about $4.15bn was spent on interventions involving the Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna refineries between 1993 and 2019, while the Federal Executive Council approved another $3.14bn package in 2021, including $1.5bn for Port Harcourt, $897.6m for Warri and $740.67m for Kaduna.
The association pointed to the Port Harcourt refinery as evidence of the problem. The plant resumed operations in late 2024 but shut down again on May 24, 2025, while an NNPC Ltd internal assessment in February 2026 reportedly found the facilities operating at material losses.
PETROAN said the proposed technical equity partnership involving NNPC Ltd, Sanjiang Chemical Company Limited and Xingcheng (Fuzhou) Industrial Park Operation and Management Co. Ltd therefore presents an opportunity to change the pattern, but warned that the existing April 2026 memorandum of understanding remains non-binding.
It wants the agreement converted into a legally enforceable contract containing completion dates, throughput guarantees, minimum availability requirements and liquidated damages for non-performance. It also called for disclosure of the equity structure, capital commitments, crude supply arrangements, offtake terms and outstanding liabilities.
The association further identified crude supply as a critical condition for the success of the rehabilitation, insisting that the Domestic Crude Supply Obligation under the Petroleum Industry Act must work effectively. It warned that Nigeria could spend heavily on restoring refineries only to face another problem if adequate crude is not consistently delivered to them.
PETROAN also argued that the case for restoring the government-owned plants has become stronger despite the emergence of large private refiners. It said Nigeria’s petrol import bill fell from ₦2.271tn in the first quarter of 2025 to ₦87.4bn in the first quarter of 2026, while domestic refineries supplied about 76.7 per cent of national petrol volumes during the period.
The association said bringing the 210,000-barrels-per-day Port Harcourt refinery and 125,000-bpd Warri refinery into sustainable operation would add 335,000 bpd of refining capacity, with the additional output potentially strengthening supply to the South-South and South-East markets and reducing reliance on long-distance product transportation.