Industry experts are questioning how well the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) is managing the country’s refineries, particularly regarding transparency and efficiency.
This comes after learning that the Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company has been shut down since January 25, 2025, due to safety issues with its Crude Distillation Unit Main Heater.
According to The Punch, an April 2025 document from the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority revealed that the refinery, which cost $897.6 million in maintenance, failed to produce petrol and was shut down barely a month after former NNPC Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari, announced it was working.
Industry experts called this situation disheartening. Further investigations showed that the Port Harcourt Refining Company, which resumed operations in November 2024, has been operating at less than 40% of its capacity.
The 125,000 barrels per day Warri refinery had been inactive for decades due to technical problems before the national oil company restarted it on December 30, 2024.
Located in Ekpan, Uwvie, and Ubeji areas of Warri, the plant can produce 13,000 metric tonnes of polypropylene and 18,000 metric tonnes of carbon black annually.
Built in 1978, the WRPC is run by the NNPC and was created to serve Nigeria’s southern and southwestern markets.
President Bola Tinubu previously praised the NNPCL for completing the refurbishment of the 125,000-bpd capacity Warri refinery, which supposedly began operating at 60% capacity.
The refinery focuses on producing and storing important products, including Straight Run Kerosene, Automotive Gas Oil (diesel), and heavy and light Naphtha.
Before touring the revitalised facility, Kyari told his team that many Nigerians doubted such projects were real or possible in the country, but insisted the restart was genuine and visible.
Kyari said, “We are taking you through our plant. This plant is running. Although it is not 100 per cent complete, we are still in the process. Many people think these things are not real. They think real things are not possible in this country. We want you to see that this 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, the document obtained exclusively from the NMDPRA, with detailed production data for each refinery in the country, revealed that the Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company has been shut down since January 25, 2025.
The report linked the shutdown to serious faults in the refinery’s Crude Distillation Unit Main Heater, which created safety concerns and forced operations to stop completely.
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“The Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company was shut down on 25th Jan. 2025 due to safety concerns over the CDU Main Heater,” the document stated.
It also revealed that the Port Harcourt refinery, designed to process 60,000 barrels per day, has been operating at just 37.87% of its capacity six months after its long-awaited revival.
The refinery’s monthly production data showed it produced an average of 82.55 million litres of refined petroleum products monthly between November 2024 and April 2025, which is 135.45 million litres less than its expected optimal production of 218 million litres per month.
This contradicts claims by NNPCL spokesperson, Femi Soneye, that the Port Harcourt refinery, recommissioned on November 26, 2024, was operating at 70% capacity, with plans to increase to 90% in the coming months.
The refinery produces Premium Motor Spirit blending components, including Straight-Run Gasoline and Straight-Run Naphtha, as well as Automotive Gas Oil (diesel). The plant, equipped with a Hydrocracker Unit, also makes high-value fuels such as jet fuel, Household Kerosene, liquefied petroleum gas, and naphtha.
At its reopening, the state-owned company said the Port Harcourt refinery would produce daily outputs of 1.4 million litres of Straight-Run Gasoline blended into Premium Motor Spirit, 900,000 litres of Kerosene, 1.5 million litres of Automotive Gas Oil, 2.1 million litres of Low Pour Fuel Oil, and additional volumes of Liquefied Petroleum Gas.
The $1.5 billion rehabilitation project, funded through an international loan, was supposed to fully restore the facility after years of inactivity and seven postponements.
There have been several missed deadlines for fuel production at the Port Harcourt refinery, with the latest being September 2024, after an earlier target of December 2023.
During the unveiling, NNPC officials toured the facility and took samples of petrol, diesel, and kerosene. They claimed about 200 trucks of petrol would be released into the Nigerian market daily.
President Tinubu, celebrating the restart, said it would help achieve energy sufficiency, enhance energy security, and boost Nigeria’s export capacity.
Recently, the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria praised the NNPCL for running the revamped Port Harcourt Refinery for 180 days without stopping. The association’s National Public Relations Officer, Dr. Joseph Obele, said the refinery had been inactive for over 20 years.
He said members were loading diesel and Dual Purpose Kerosene from the refinery, while NNPC Ltd. retail marketers were loading petrol.
Obele said, “It was commissioned in October 2024 and has been running continuously for 180 days, up to March 2025; it is a remarkable feat that underscores the effectiveness of the rehabilitation project.”
But the new document revealing the refinery’s true condition showed it didn’t exceed 42.23% of its operational capacity during the six-month period. It showed that the facility produced more diesel than petrol blending components.
The total production figure comes from the combined output of various refined petroleum products, including blending components for petrol, diesel, and kerosene. According to oil and gas experts, one barrel of crude oil can produce 159 litres of refined products when heated and refined.
A detailed breakdown showed that in November, the refinery produced 9.51 million litres, far below its operational capacity of 38.16 million litres. This represents just 24.92% utilisation, with a shortfall of 28.65 million litres.
In December, the refinery’s production increased dramatically by 1,044% to 108 million litres. However, this was still below the expected monthly production of 286.20 million litres, using just 38.01% of its capacity and leaving a significant shortfall of 177.41 million litres.
In January, the refinery produced 120.91 million litres of refined products, representing just 42.2% of its full 286.20 million-litre capacity.
A slight decrease followed this in February, where 111.81 million litres were produced, equal to 39.1% of the refinery’s total capacity. In March, production further dropped to 100.03 million litres, which was 35% of the expected output for the month.
In the first 13 days of April, the refinery produced 44.24 million litres, amounting to 35.7% of the projected capacity of 124.02 million litres for the month.
A detailed product-by-product analysis shows significant variations in production. In November, the refinery produced 4.38 million litres of petrol, which increased to 40.32 million litres in December, and continued rising in January with 41.76 million litres.
However, production fell to 39.34 million litres in February and 34.21 million litres in March, before dropping further to 15.22 million litres in the first 13 days of April.
For diesel, the refinery produced 3.49 million litres in November, with a sharp rise to 40.72 million litres in December. Output then peaked at 55.10 million litres in January, followed by slight decreases to 47.33 million litres in February, 45.38 million litres in March, and 18.96 million litres in the first half of April.
Kerosene production saw more modest but still notable changes, with 1.64 million litres in November, rising sharply to 27.75 million litres in December. This was followed by a drop to 24.05 million litres in February and 25.14 million litres in March, before falling further to 10.06 million litres in April. This data highlights the refinery’s inconsistent production pattern across key petroleum products.
The daily average data showed that in November, the facility distributed an average of 238,080 litres of petrol per day, which increased to 538,600 litres per day in December. However, output dropped in January, with a daily average of 275,630 litres of petrol and 347,380 litres of diesel. In February, the refinery produced 85,480 litres of petrol and 639,240 litres of diesel on average per day, showing another decrease in petrol production.
Notably, the refinery recorded zero litres of petrol distribution in both March and April, highlighting a significant shortfall. In contrast, diesel production increased sharply, with a daily average of 865,110 litres in March and 968,460 litres in the first half of April.
Meanwhile, the Warri refinery, which has been shut for four months, produced 1.96 million litres of diesel and 2.84 million litres of kerosene in December, and 10 million litres of diesel and 12 million litres of kerosene in January 2025.
