Questions are mounting over the credibility of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) following new revelations that the Warri refinery shut down less than a month after its much-publicised reactivation.
Data from the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), according to Punch, revealed that the Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company, which reportedly began operations on December 30, 2024, was shut on January 25, 2025, due to safety concerns linked to its Crude Distillation Unit Main Heater.
This comes despite claims by the then NNPC Group CEO, Mele Kyari, who, during a tour of the facility, insisted the revitalisation was genuine.
He had said, “We want you to see that this is real… We have proved that it is possible to restart a plant you deliberately shut down.” The plant reportedly consumed $897.6 million in maintenance costs.
Industry insiders have called this shutdown a troubling reflection of deeper structural problems in the management of Nigeria’s refineries. Many are asking why a facility that was celebrated as operational would go offline so abruptly.
The Port Harcourt Refinery, which also resumed operations in late 2024 after a $1.5 billion rehabilitation, isn’t faring much better.
While NNPC claimed it was running at 70% capacity, the NMDPRA’s data tells a different story — the plant peaked at just 42.2% utilisation between November 2024 and April 2025.
Despite some production spikes in December and January, figures from March and April reveal sharp drops, particularly in Premium Motor Spirit (PMS).
The refinery reportedly trucked out zero litres of PMS in both March and the first half of April, while diesel output soared, suggesting an imbalanced and inconsistent output.
Further data show PMS production falling from a high of 41.76 million litres in January to 15.22 million litres in early April. Diesel, on the other hand, rose to nearly a million litres daily in April. The trend has led some analysts to describe the refinery’s production pattern as erratic and poorly optimised.
Meanwhile, the Warri refinery’s brief activity resulted in just under 27 million litres of products across December and January before going dark.
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NNPCL attributed the shutdown to routine maintenance, dismissing reports of an explosion and promising a restart “within days.” Months later, the plant remains idle.
The silence from NNPCL has drawn sharp criticism. Chief Chinedu Ukadike of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) called the situation “a total waste” and urged President Bola Tinubu to declare a state of emergency on the refineries.
Ukadike said, “It is very disheartening that a refinery that gulped a whole lot of money would be shut down in less than two months… This development has now left us in the hands of Dangote, who is the sole source of petroleum products and profiteering.”
He warned that monopoly undermines deregulation, adding that “you can’t open a refinery, and on the resumption, it would load only four trucks.”
Energy expert Bala Zaka also weighed in, stating that refinery functionality should translate to lower pump prices, dwhich hasn’t happened.
“If our state-owned refineries were truly functional, Nigerians should have seen a substantial reduction in prices,” he said. “All the technicalities don’t make any sense if the prices remain high.”
Zaka, however, opposed privatisation, insisting that Nigeria must manage its refineries efficiently like other OPEC nations.
Echoing this sentiment, former government adviser Dan Kunle described the entire refinery rehabilitation programme as “a scandal.”
Speaking during a virtual forum, Kunle argued that years of political interference and mismanagement have robbed Nigerians of value.
While President Tinubu had hailed the refinery restarts as a leap toward energy security under his “Renewed Hope Agenda,” the unfolding reality suggests otherwise.
Both refineries were expected to ease Nigeria’s fuel import burden, but the data now casts doubt on whether those expectations were ever grounded in operational truth.