Nigeria Lost $500m Monthly Running Port Harcourt Refinery – NNPCL Boss
The Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPCL, Bayo Ojulari, has revealed that Nigeria was losing between $300 million and $500 million every month while the Port Harcourt Refinery was operational.
Ojulari disclosed this during a meeting with leaders of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) in Abuja on Thursday.
“When I resumed, one of my first priorities was the refinery. We were pumping about 50,000 barrels of crude, but what was coming out was less than 40 per cent equivalent,” he said.
“Rather than continue to lose, we decided to freeze operations and find a sustainable, profitable model.”
He explained that the NNPCL was considering partnerships with professional refinery operators under a model similar to the NLNG, insisting that “it is not in Nigeria’s best interest to keep funding loss-making refineries.”
Ojulari added that the company had completed technical and commercial reviews of the refineries and was holding discussions with potential investors.
He stressed that President Bola Tinubu had not pressured him to pursue unsustainable options.
“My commitment is that when this refinery is reworking, everybody will be back to work. But for now, we all need to co-operate to ensure sustainability,” he said.
