There was dancing and rejoicing when Mele Kyari announced with glee that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) had pulled through and what seemed impossible to the doubting Thomases and pessimists had become possible. The Warri Refinery machines were set to roar back to life.
Kyari, the Group Chief Executive Officer, beating his chest in triumph, on 30 December, led journalists on a tour of the facility in Warri. It was an event witnessed by stakeholders, comprising marketers in particular. He said on the occasion about the reactivation this column regarded trustingly as a New Year gift by NNPCL:
“If you see the plant you will see the reality yourself. This plant is running; we have not completed it 100 per cent, but we are still in the process; we are on the other part of the plant as we progress, but currently this plant is running. You will see what is happening now and we are bringing products to the market.”
He went on: “There are many people who don’t think this is real. People don’t believe real things can happen in our country. We believe that this is right for our country and all of us have a stake, including the media so this can become a greater place as it is already happening.”
Turning to the journalists he said: “We want you to see that everything is real. I must congratulate our team for their determination and extreme belief that this company can restart this plant. This has brought the result we are seeing in collaboration with our contractors. We have proved that it is possible to restart a plant that you deliberately shut down. We have proved this.”
However, former President Olusegun Obasanjo hissed. He was swift in pouring cold water on our spirit, expressing serious doubts about the celebrative health feat of the refineries, both Warri and Port Harcourt. And what is the situation today about four months after the hallelujah chorus? According to a regulatory authority documenta national newspaper sighted, the Warri Refinery has been shut down since 25 January, 2025. And Port Harcourt plant which resumed operation in November last year, just about a month before Warri has been operating below 40 per cent capacity. I will come back to this presently.
Commenting on the refurbishment of Warri Refinery, this column stated as follows on 11 January in the piece captioned ‘Fuelling Doubts’: “The ding-dong between former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the NNPCL is good, disturbing as it may seem on the surface. It is a wake-up clarion call to NNPCL. The nation has suffered enough in its hands. The argument that may be seen as degenerating into a brickbat is still over the state of the refineries.
“The group chief executive officer (GCEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Mele Kyari, announced to the nation on 30 December, 2024, that Warri Refinery had been successfully, though partially refurbished and was roaring back to life. The New Year gift by NNPCL to the nation took everybody by surprise, coming this soon after the old Port Harcourt refinery was reactivated and it became operational. Despite the stage of rehabilitation, it will produce 60 per cent of its installed capacity, which is 125, 000 barrels per day. GCOE Mele Kyari said with glee: “If you see the plant, you will see the reality yourself. This plant is running…” The Punch comprehensive report on the state of the two refineries on Tuesday, however, does not give much signal for cheer in the horizon—provided the new helmsman, Bayo Ojulari, rolls up his sleeves and charts his own totally new course, moved away from broken promises of the past.
The column did state: “Former President Obasanjo, who is not known to shrink from controversies, has thrust his chest out to count among ‘people who don’t think this is real’, that is, given his stature he is not perturbed if he is seen as leading the Doubting Thomases. He was swift in expressing doubts about the health feat of the refineries. He anchored his reservations on the aphoristic parable of a farmer and the size of his farm during planting season. The farmer made the world to believe that he had a large cultivation of yams. He boasted that he planted 200 yam mounds, whereas all he had were 100 heaps. At harvest the truth will inexorably catch up with him.
“So, if anybody tells you that they (the refineries) are working, why are they not with Aliko in the market? Aliko will make his own refinery work. Not only make it work, he will make it deliver”, Obasanjo said sarcastically.
“Whether we announce our own government refineries are working or not working, look, it is like they say in Yoruba adage, ‘the man who plants 100 heaps of yams and says he planted 200 heaps, they say after he has harvested 100 heaps of yam, he will harvest 100 heaps of lies.’
In response, however, the NNPCL leadership sure of itself, or so it appeared, said it would be pleased to have Obasanjo as a guest to be taken round the plants to see things for himself.
As I did state at the time, given Obasanjo’s standing and public acclaim, and his own familiarisation with the company as a former President, it is inconceivable that he would make comments on matters of this nature and on the company’s operations without intelligence reports and without gathering information from competent sources connected with the refineries. The former President was not the only person who harboured doubts. Some experts in the oil industry believed it must have been a miracle to succeed in bringing the refineries back to life. One said at the time: ‘We wait and see.’
Obasanjo hinged part of his doubts on his discussions with Shell that he had invited, while in the saddle, to take interest in running the refineries but Shell turned down the offer. One of the four reasons Shell gave was that there was too much corruption around the activities of our refinery and they would not want to get involved. They gave other reasons bordering on the productive capacity of the refineries which Shell considered too small.
NNPCL on its part allayed fears saying it had expanded beyond oil and gas to become an integrated energy company. The company went further to explain that what had taken place was not the accustomed Turn Around Maintenance (TAM), but a comprehensive overhaul. It was a comprehensive overhaul designed to meet what it described as world-class standards. And Chief Corporate Communications Officer of NNPCL, Olufemi Soneye reinforced enheartening hopes and expectation by reminding the nation that NNPCL was no longer a government corporation. “Today,” he said, “NNPC Limited is a private entity that has transitioned from being a loss-making organisation to becoming a profit -oriented global energy leader.”
Far back as 04 August, 2021, the Buhari Administration approved $1.48 billion (U.S. Dollars) for the rehabilitation of both Warri and Kaduna refineries, $897million for Warri and $586 million for Kaduna. For Warri, the rehabilitation was in phases of first, 21 months; then 23 months and the last 33 months.
As of the time of the announcement of the reactivation the assurance of the readiness of the refinery to produce Premium Motor Spirit alias PMS but more widely known as petrol was glossed over which was the major product the generality of Nigerians was ardently longing to have. ThisDay gave the hint that as of the time Kyari and his team were on tour of the plant, the refinery was going through a “test-run of its refining processes, and Naphtha had yet to be transferred to the Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) unit for production of Premium Motor Spirit, (PMS) that is petrol or gas.
This column did admonish NNPCL to see any lingering doubts as expressed by former President Obasanjo and some experts in the oil industry as burden and a challenge they must quickly discharge. Indeed, the doubts must be seen as energy tonic to fasten belts and to fire them to disabuse the mind of everybody and prove the Doubting Thomases wrong, and beat their chest that the two refineries, Port Harcourt producing 75 per cent of 150,000 barrels a day and Warri producing at 60 per cent of 125, 000 barrels are back on stream. Were the claims to prove Obasanjo right and end as a hoax, not after President Bola Tinubu has described the development in Warri as a historic milestone, it would be the biggest scandal of the century.
NNPCL did not appear to have heeded my warning: Alas, Obasanjo may have been proven right. Pray that we may not witness all turning out a hoax after all!! Otherwise, how do you explain Warri Refinery being shut down barely three weeks its reactivation was celebrated—greeted with so much noise-making, glamour and laudation, especially by Bola Tinubu. NNPCL said what they did in Warri was total overhauling. Now it is a new song: The plant is undergoing repairs for efficient service delivery and ensuring optimal operations. It was a routine maintenance programme. That was in February.
“On January 25, 2025”, according to NNPCL in a statement, “operations at WRPC Area 1 were intentionally curtailed to carry out necessary intervention works on select equipment, including field instruments that were impacting sustainable and steady operations. These intervention works are essential to ensure the production of specification finished and intermediate products, particularly Automotive Gas Oil and Kerosine. The routine maintenance is progressing as planned, and 1 will be back in operation within the next few days.”
Listen to the President when Kyari announced the return of Warri facility to production following the successful completion of its reactivation: “The restart of Warri Refinery today brings joy and gladness to me” Bubbling with excitement, he said that now that the reactivation of Warri had been accomplished, attention should shift to Kaduna Refinery and kick it also back to life.
In the case of Port Harcourt when it rolled back to life in November, the elated President said the refinery coming back on stream would contribute towards energy sufficiency, ensuring energy security, and raise, indeed, enhance export capacity. He saw it as being in alignment with his vision of what is touted unceasingly as Renewed Hope Agenda which is focused on shared economic prosperity for all.
Stakeholders are expressing dishevelment and concerned that despite years of investment little tangible results have come out of the refineries. Production has been erratic, up today, down tomorrow. Hardly does it exceed 42.23 per cent of its installed capacity in six months. They have described the situation as disconcerting and pressed for holistic staff review.
I do hope the new captains in the different refineries will realise that all eyes are on them; and will remove the stain on the NNPCL raiment with dispatch. They cannot afford to let the nation down! Warri Refinery shutting down so soon will be seen as scandal enough to alarm the nation after humongous $897.6 million was expended to bring it back to production. In some quarters, the rehabilitation of both refineries is already been described as a scandal.
