“I Doubt NNPC Refineries Will Ever Work” — Aliko Dangote

Aliko Dangote, President and Chief Executive of Dangote Group, has expressed strong doubts about the future of Nigeria’s state-owned refineries, stating that despite billions of dollars spent, they may never function again.

Speaking in Lagos on Thursday while hosting members of Global CEO Africa from the Lagos Business School at the Dangote Petroleum Refinery in Lekki, Dangote said the Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna refineries, managed by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd), have consumed an estimated \$18 billion with no results.

Dangote recalled how he acquired the refineries in 2007 under former President Olusegun Obasanjo, only to return them months later when the succeeding administration under President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua reversed the sale. He said NNPC officials had convinced Yar’Adua they could rehabilitate the plants, a promise that has yet to materialise.

“The refineries that we bought before, which were owned by Nigeria, were doing about 22 per cent of PMS. We had to return them to the government because there was a change of government. And as of today, they have spent about \$18bn on those refineries, and they are still not working. I doubt very much if they will work,” Dangote stated.

He likened the ongoing rehabilitation efforts to modernising a decades-old vehicle with incompatible new technology. “Even if you change the engine, the body will not be able to take the shock of that new technology engine,” he said.

The business magnate also noted that over 50% of output from his 650,000-barrel-per-day refinery is currently allocated to Premium Motor Spirit (petrol), a figure significantly higher than the 22% historically produced by government refineries.

Dangote’s comments reinforce former President Obasanjo’s previous criticism of the refineries. Obasanjo had recounted how Shell and other international oil companies declined to run the facilities due to inefficiency, and warned that the assets could eventually lose all value. He said he had told Yar’Adua the NNPC was incapable of making the refineries work, a view now shared by Dangote.

Obasanjo added that corruption within the NNPC system had prolonged the failure. “When people were there to do it, they put pressure. In a civilised society, those people should be in jail,” he said.

Calls for the privatisation of the government refineries have grown louder following the shutdown of the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries shortly after they were declared operational late last year. Industry groups and downstream players have called the refineries a drain on the economy and urged the government to sell them off or convert them into scrap to support modular refining projects.

Despite significant allocations—$1.4 billion for Port Harcourt, $897 million for Warri, and $586 million for Kaduna refineries—along with ongoing monthly maintenance costs, the facilities remain non-functional.

Efforts to reach the NNPC for comment were unsuccessful as the corporation currently lacks an official spokesperson. Contact numbers listed on its website were unreachable, and messages went unanswered at the time of this report.