PETROAN backs Tinubu on refinery revival, demands firm timelines from NNPC

The Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN) has backed President Bola Tinubu’s call for refineries to be assessed based on profitability rather than mere operation, while demanding clear timelines and enforceable commitments from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) on refinery rehabilitation.

In a statement issued on Friday and signed by its Special Adviser on Media, Chris Odia, and National Public Relations Officer, Dr Joseph Obele, PETROAN said the President’s recent remarks to the newly elected leadership of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) represented an important shift in the way Nigeria’s refining sector should be evaluated.

Tinubu had told the NUPENG leadership that a refinery merely appearing to operate does not necessarily mean it is commercially viable.

PETROAN National President, Dr Billy Gillis-Harry, described the position as a significant statement on Nigeria’s refining industry, saying the success of refineries should be measured by their margins, throughput and return on investment.

The association said about $4.15 billion was spent on the Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna refineries between 1993 and 2019, while a further $3.14 billion was approved by the Federal Executive Council in March 2021 for rehabilitation of the three facilities.

It added that parliamentary and labour sources had put additional operating and rehabilitation costs between 2020 and 2025 at about N11.35 trillion.

According to PETROAN, the Port Harcourt refinery briefly resumed operations in late 2024 before shutting down again on May 24, 2025, for what was initially expected to be a month-long maintenance programme.

The association said the refinery had yet to resume operations, while an internal NNPC review in February 2026 reportedly found that the refineries were operating at a loss.

PETROAN therefore expressed support for the National Assembly’s investigation into expenditure on the refineries, arguing that the major problem confronting Nigeria’s refining industry was not simply lack of funding but governance, technical ownership and accountability.

Import bill drops

The association acknowledged that Nigeria’s petrol import bill had fallen significantly, from N2.271 trillion in the first quarter of 2025 to N87.4 billion in the corresponding period of 2026.

It said domestic refineries accounted for 76.7 per cent of petrol supplied during the period, compared with 45.2 per cent a year earlier.

However, PETROAN cautioned against interpreting the figures as evidence that Nigeria’s refining challenges had been completely resolved.

The association argued that the country had effectively shifted from dependence on imports to dependence on a single domestic source, creating another form of supply concentration.

It said restoring the 210,000 barrels-per-day Port Harcourt refinery and the 125,000 bpd Warri refinery would provide an additional 335,000 bpd of refining capacity and create a more geographically diversified supply network.

PETROAN sets conditions for China partnership

On the Technical Equity Partnership signed by NNPC Ltd in Jiaxing City, China, on April 30, 2026, with Sanjiang Chemical Company Limited and Xingcheng (Fuzhou) Industrial Park Operation and Management Co. Ltd, PETROAN said it supported the equity-based approach in principle.

However, the association noted that NNPC had described the agreement as a non-binding memorandum subject to regulatory approvals and further negotiations.

PETROAN therefore demanded that the agreement be converted into a legally binding contract containing completion timelines and penalties for non-performance.

It also called for disclosure of the commercial structure of the deal, including the equity distribution and crude pricing arrangements, as well as public technical due diligence on the residual value of the refineries.

The association further demanded guaranteed crude supply under the Petroleum Industry Act’s Domestic Crude Supply Obligation, genuine transfer of technical expertise to Nigerian engineers and reliable product evacuation systems to prevent diversion into the parallel market.

PETROAN also commended NUPENG National Executive President, Salimon Akanni Oladiti, for advocating refinery revival during his engagement with the President.

The association endorsed NUPENG’s call for an end to the casualisation of workers in Nigeria’s upstream petroleum sector.

PETROAN said it wanted the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries to become sustainably operational before the next general election, stressing that it was not advocating the compromise of safety or commissioning standards in order to meet a political deadline.