The Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Mr. Bayo Ojulari, has said that the shutdown of Nigeria’s state-owned refineries was part of a long-term energy strategy rather than a short-term cost-cutting move.
Speaking at the Nigeria International Energy Summit (NIES) in Abuja, Ojulari said Nigeria’s energy future depended on strategic realism, not nostalgia. “We cannot build tomorrow’s energy system on yesterday’s assumptions,” he said.
Ojulari explained that the refinery shutdown allows Nigeria to rethink its downstream sector in line with global energy trends and domestic realities. “For decades, we believed ownership was more important than performance,” he said. “That belief has failed us.”
Ojulari said Nigeria’s refineries were built in an era when state ownership dominated the oil industry, adding that the model no longer works. “Energy is now about efficiency, resilience, and adaptability,” he said.
The shutdown, he noted, creates space to align refinery operations with broader energy transition goals. “You cannot modernise while bleeding money,” Ojulari said.
Experts are of the view that Nigeria’s refineries operated efficiently through the 1980s and much of the 1990s, but performance declined in the 2000s as institutional focus shifted away from operational excellence toward EPC contracting, O&M structures, and financing-driven interventions.
This transition weakened preventive maintenance culture, increased reliance on turnaround maintenance cycles that proved more commercially attractive to external parties, and contributed to the gradual erosion of in-house operational capacity within NNPC.
He also stressed the importance of flexibility in energy supply. “Energy security is not about doing everything yourself,” he said. “It is about ensuring supply at the lowest cost.”
Ojulari said private-sector refining, imports, and restructured public assets must work together. “The Dangote Refinery has changed the equation,” he said. “It gives us options.”
He rejected claims that the shutdown represents abandonment. “This is repositioning,” he said. Under the new strategy, NNPC plans to integrate refinery assets into a commercially viable energy portfolio.
“We are thinking in decades, not election cycles,” Ojulari said. Ojulari noted that the decision reflects a broader shift in mindset.
“This is what strategy looks like. You choose sustainability over sentiment,” he concluded.
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