By Kingston Magare 4.2.2026
Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited Group Chief Executive Officer Bayo Ojulari has cried out that the country’s state-run refineries are operating at a huge loss.
Ojulari who was speaking Wednesday in Abuja during the Nigeria International Energy Summit 2026, said the NNPCL was forced to halt operations since the company could no longer sustain the losses.
“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,” Ojulari reeled out.
“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.
“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 submitted that the refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna were only running due to political reasons because lot of money was spent by the government to refurbish them and Nigerians wanted results.
“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.
“There were political pressures to keep the refinery product, lots of pressure. But when you have been trained for over 35 years to focus on commerciality and profitability, you can’t sleep with that.”
Ojulari...NNPCL boss seeing red