The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has dismissed the managing directors of the country’s three state-owned refineries—Warri, Port Harcourt, and Kaduna—amid nationwide outrage over the failure of a multi-billion naira refinery rehabilitation programme.
The development, confirmed by multiple officials within NNPCL, also includes the removal of top executives such as Bala Wunti, former chief of the Nigeria Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), a critical subsidiary overseeing upstream oil investments. In what appears to be a sweeping purge, staff with less than a year left before retirement have also been asked to leave.
The overhaul, which insiders describe as a desperate attempt by the new management to clean up the company’s image, comes weeks after it emerged that the Warri Refinery, supposedly refurbished at a cost of $897.6 million, had never resumed operations as publicly claimed. Instead, the plant was shut down barely a month after a televised ceremony declared it ‘fully functional’.
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The news has ignited a firestorm of criticism across the country, with energy experts, civic groups, and ordinary Nigerians condemning what many now see as one of the boldest episodes of official deceit in the nation’s oil industry.
Kelvin Emmanuel, a respected energy analyst, had long questioned the authenticity of the refinery revamp claims.
“Warri, Port Harcourt, and Kaduna refineries were never coming back to operations,” he said. “The entire commissioning that was shown to Nigerians on television was a charade.”
He had, in 2024, described the programme as no more than a “blending operation” designed to give the illusion of activity while masking deeper operational failures.
His words are now seen as prophetic.
An internal status report from the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) confirms that Warri Refinery was shut down on January 25, 2025, citing “safety concerns on the Crude Distillation Unit (CDU) Main Heater.” The report makes no mention of any output of petrol or related products, contradicting the Nigerian government’s claims that the plant had reached 60 percent capacity.
The revelation has enraged many Nigerians, particularly in light of persistent fuel shortages, high pump prices, and a government that has repeatedly defended the withdrawal of petrol subsidies on the grounds of promoting domestic refining.
Tinubu’s Celebration Now A Source of Embarrassment
The fallout is particularly awkward for President Bola Tinubu, whose administration had celebrated the relaunch of the Warri Refinery in December 2024 with considerable fanfare.
In a statement broadcast across national television, Tinubu declared:
“The restart of Warri Refinery today brings joy and gladness to me and Nigerians. This will further strengthen the hope and confidence of Nigerians for a greater and better future that we promised. This development is a remarkable way to end the year following the feat recorded earlier with the old Port Harcourt Refinery.”
He continued:
“I am equally happy that NNPC Limited is implementing my directive to restore all four refineries to good working condition. I congratulate Mele Kyari and his team at NNPCL for working hard to restore our national pride and make Nigeria a hub for crude oil refining in Africa.”
At the time, the president claimed the Warri facility was already operating at 60 percent capacity and tied its supposed revival to his broader goal of energy security. His supporters on social media and in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) hailed the moment as proof of his reform credentials. But with new revelations that the refinery never resumed production, and in fact, shut down within weeks, critics now accuse the administration of staging a national deception.
Expert Warns Kaduna Refinery Is Another Illusion
Kelvin Emmanuel has warned that unless deep structural issues are addressed, including Nigeria’s aging pipeline network, the idea of reviving the Kaduna Refinery is equally fictitious.
“Without the 674km pipeline that connects Escravos to Kaduna, you can kiss the two CDUs—one for heavy crude and the other for light crude—goodbye,” he said. “Any claim that you want to bring back Kaduna Refinery through barging, which will cost three to five times more than regular piping, is complete fiction.”
He also renewed calls for a full forensic audit of NNPC Trading (formerly Duke Oil) and Nigeria Upstream Investment Management Services (NUIMS, formerly NAPIMS), arguing that racketeering involving inflated invoices and dubious field development costs continues to drain national resources.
“The PXF invoice and validation of field development cost racket is well known to insiders,” Emmanuel stated, urging anti-corruption agencies to step in.
Port Harcourt Refinery Also Under Scrutiny
The Port Harcourt Refinery also said to have resumed partial operations late last year, is now reportedly functioning far below capacity, with no commercial output reaching the market. Industry insiders claim its operations are limited to internal tests and mechanical runs, not actual refining of petroleum products for the public.
Sources at NNPCL say the company is scrambling to manage the fallout, particularly as international investors and bilateral partners begin to question the credibility of state-sponsored oil projects.
New Management Faces Uphill Battle
The sacking of refinery bosses is the first major action under new NNPCL Group CEO Bayo Ojulari, appointed earlier this month following the removal of Mele Kyari. Ojulari, an oil industry technocrat, is best known for leading the $2.4 billion acquisition of Shell’s onshore assets via Renaissance Africa Energy.
Together with new NNPCL Board Chairman Musa Ahmadu-Kida, Ojulari is expected to implement a turnaround plan aimed at salvaging what remains of public trust in the national oil firm. But the road ahead is steep. Aside from technical challenges, the new team must reckon with entrenched interests, opaque contracting systems, and political interference.
Sources at the Presidency who spoke to The PUNCH said the sack of Kyari and those affected at the time stemmed from mounting concern over performance and a failure to meet key production targets.
They said the shake-up was a performance-based reshuffle, arguing that those previously in charge “were going in circles” and some of them had “become part of the problem, rather than the solution.”
The broader context makes the situation even more damning. Since 2015, Nigeria has spent over $2.7 billion on turnaround maintenance and rehabilitation of its four refineries—all without producing refined products. The failure to restore domestic refining capacity has left Africa’s largest oil producer almost entirely dependent on imported petrol, exacerbating forex pressures, inflating pump prices, and undermining the removal of subsidies.