The Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Bayo Ojulari, says Nigeria’s state-owned refineries have remained non-functional because of misplaced priorities that focused heavily on financing and contracting exploration, production, and construction (EPC) companies, while neglecting long-term operations and maintenance.
Speaking on Friday at the Nigerian International Energy Summit (NIES), Ojulari explained that financiers and EPC contractors often take profits and exit, leaving NNPC to manage the facilities for decades without adequate operational planning.
“The reason our refineries have not worked is that we are focused on the first two: EPC and financing. Anybody who wants to do the financing will get value for it. The EPC contractors do their work, get paid, and move on. You, as NNPC, are left for the next 20 to 40 years to run those refineries. And we’ve never really focused on that,” he said.
Ojulari noted that while discussions around operations and maintenance (O&M) have been extensive, they often become another contract that drains resources without accountability.
“O&M is another contract. So you end up with financing, EPC, O&M—all of them taking money from the system without any skin in the game. There’s no way you can sustain any business like that,” he added.
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He stressed the need for operational assurance from the start of projects, citing his experience at Shell where he was part of the commissioning team for Qatargas, auditing operational readiness even before construction was completed.
Ojulari argued that mega-projects require years of planning and construction but decades of operation, meaning the focus should be on sustainability and long-term management rather than short-term contracts.
“You spend maybe three to five years constructing it. You run it for about 25 to 50 years. So where should your focus be?” he asked.
He admitted that NNPC had previously handled these critical issues “with kid gloves” but said the current leadership is determined to change course.
Ojulari also revealed that NNPC is in talks with a Chinese firm over a potential partnership to revive one of the state-owned refineries.
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