The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, (NNPCL) has officially ruled out the sale of the Port-Harcourt Refining Company, reaffirming its commitment to completing high-grade rehabilitation and retention of the plant.
Its Group Chief Executive Officer, Bayo Ojulari, made the announcement during a company-wide town hall meeting at the NNPCL Towers in Abuja, ending weeks of speculation over the future of the country’s most prominent state-owned refining asset.
A statement by the company management yesterday read: “The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has officially ruled out the sale of the Port-Harcourt Refining Company, reaffirming its commitment to completing high-grade rehabilitation and retention of the plant”.
Ojulari described selling the Port-Harcourt Refining Company as “ill-advised and sub-commercial”. His remarks come amid rising public concern sparked by his earlier comments at the 2025 OPEC Seminar in Vienna, where he said “all options are on the table” regarding the future of Nigeria’s refineries.
The statement triggered a wave of speculation that a sale might be imminent.
He stated that the new position of the firm isn’t a shift; rather, it is informed by ongoing detailed technical and financial reviews of the Port-Harcourt, Kaduna and Warri refineries.
The statement added that, “The ongoing review indicates that the earlier decision to operate the Port Harcourt refinery, before full completion of its rehabilitation, was ill-informed and sub-commercial.
”Although progress is being made on all three, the emerging outlook calls for more advanced technical partnerships to complete and high-grade the rehabilitation of the Port-Harcourt refinery. Thus, selling is highly unlikely as it would lead to further value erosion”.
