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 (WRPC) 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.
“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.
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.
