THE Bola Tinubu-led government must extensively probe the tenure of the former Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Mr Mele Kyari, over several allegations handing around his office.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is currently investigating Mr Kyari and other officials over the $2.896 billion allocated for refinery rehabilitation projects under their tenure. But analysts say the probe must be extensive, covering opaque contracts and questionable decisions taken under Mr Kyari’s tenure, as can be seen in the NNPC’s financial statements.

“The EFCC should deploy the services of oil and gas professsionals and accountants for the probe, not just lawyers,” said an oil and gas expert, who pleaded anonymity.

Mr Kyari was the NNPC GMD for July 2019 to April 2025. Hence he was the NNPC helmsman for 5 years and 9 months. Several Nigerians are up in arms against him over the way he handled the nation’s refineries and alleged corruption incidents during his tenure.

READ ALSO: Exclusive: NNPC spends N17trn on refineries’ turnaround maintenance in 20 years

Financial statements of the NNPC show that under Mr Mele Kyari, nation’s three refineries were in the red. For example, between 2017 and 2020, the Port Harcourt Refnery comprehensively lost N241.609 billion. In spite of the loss, their revenue within this period was merely N6.27 billion.

In 2020, Port Harcourt Refinery made no income but incurred administrative expenses of N19.215 billion, paying salaries, wages and other benefits to the tune of N22.55 billion, the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR) noted. Worse still, the refinery employed 487 new workers in 2020, altogether paying them N3.93 billion annually, indicating that each of them took home an average of N8.072 million annually or N672,713 monthly.

Warry Refinery, on the other hand, generated merely N4.429 billion between 2017 and 2019 but incurred expenses of N144. 140 billion within the same period. Liabilities (tax, debt, lease) of the refinery stood at N485.96 billion while total assets amounted to only N79.43 billion. When a firm’s liabilities exceed assets, it is said to be technically moribund.

Similarly, Kaduna Refinery lost N239.249 billion from 2017 to 2019. Total assets of the company in the three years were estimated at N116.189  billion, while liabilities stood at N1.511 trillion.

READ ALSO: Nigerians question NNPC’s $2.8bn deal with Dangote Refinery

Under Kyari, the NNPC spent $2.9 billion on the rehabilitation of the three refineries. The NNPC under Mr Kyari announced on November 26, 2024, that Port Harcourt Refinery had begun truck loading of petroleum products. But the Punch reported on June 25 that the ex-Chief Corporate Communications Officer of the NNPC, Mr Olufemi Soneye, had told its correspondent on May 23 that the refinery would be shut down for maintenance.

Hence, the Port Harcourt Refining Company has shut down for two months now, which increases the call for Mr Kyari’s extensive probe.

Economy Post reported that the NNPC spent N16.7 trillion (approximately N17 trillion) on the turnaround maintenance of the nation’s three refineries between 2002 and 2022, a competent source close to the national oil company told Economy Post.

The figure differs from that of the House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee on the State of Refineries in the Country, which had revealed that the Federal Government spent a total sum of N11.35 trillion on the rehabilitation of the three refineries from 2010 to 2023.

“Mr Mele Kyari’s tenure deserves to be probed for failing Nigeria’s dream of having national refineries. We need to know what happened to the $1.5 billion spent on Port Harcourt Refinery and $1.4 billion expended on Kaduna and Warri refineries,” said a United Kingdom-based investment consultant, Dr Chuka Chile.

Opaque contracts

Under Kyari, analysts complained that some contracts were not clear. One example was the deal between the NNPC Limited and Dangote Refinery, which was meant to cost a total of $2.8 billion.

The NNPC Limited wanted to acquire a 20 percent stake in Dangote Refinery in 2021, paying $1 billion to the group owned by Africa’s richest man, Mr Aliko Dangote, through a lender, Lekki Refinery Funding Limited.

The total cost of the acquisition was $2.76 billion, and the national oil company was forced to look for $1.76 billion balance to conclude the transactions through cash and crude oil supply. In the 2022 financial statement released by NNPC Limited in January 2024, however, there was no explanation as to who valuated Dangote Refinery and the processes involved in it.

Incidentally, the deal eventually collapsed as the NNPC now owns only 7.2 percent stake in Dangote, having been unable to meet the required financial obligations.

But what is more secretive is a litany of crude oil contracts signed with oil companies under Mr Kyari. Forward crude sales involving the national oil company stood at $21.565 billion under Kyari’s six-year reign, according to a document obtained by ThisDay. “The NNPC is aware of these opaque contracts and still entered into crude-for-naira contracts with Dangote Refinery and other local refiners. Currently, Dangote imports much of its crude from the United States’ market, implying that the foundation of the crude-for-naira contract is shaky,” an oil sector insider, who pleaded anonymity, said, stressing the need for an extensive and wide-ranging probe of the ex-GMD tenure.

Corruption allegations

Under Mr Kyari, the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), an industry watchdog, said the NNPC did not remit over $2 billion into the federation account in 2021 before becoming a commercial venture.

Also, the NNPC spent trillions of naira on the opaque petrol subsidy. The NNPC spent N1.16 trillion on petrol subsidy in 2021, N2.91 trillion in 2022, and N5.10 trillion in 2023, according to Agora Policy. The NNPC spent N5.4 trillion on fuel subsidy in 2024. The spending had been less than N1 trillion in 2019 and 2020.

Former Central Bank Governor, Lamido Sanusi Lamido, had, on December 7, 2023, criticised the NNPC for failing to remit dollars into Nigeria’s coffers.

“Why is the NNPCL not able to bring in dollars? Am sorry this is the question that cost me my job and I will continue asking this question until NNPCL fixes it up or until I die. Where are the dollars? We need to shine a light on the NNPCL. The finance minister cannot tell you because he doesn’t have a monitoring system that reports to him. The finance minister can’t tell you how many barrels of petrol we produce and export. It is only the NNPCL that can give those figures. The finance ministry needs to know how much oil we produce daily, how much we sell, and where the money is going,” Mr Sanusi said.

READ ALSO: Port Harcourt, Warri, Kaduna refineries owe NNPC N4.5trn without producing oil

“We are no longer paying subsidies so where are the dollars? It was under recovery during the subsidy era and that has been stopped, so where is the money? This was the issue I raised for which I was suspended, well you can suspend me again. The NNPCL is the most opaque oil company in the world. When I was in the central bank for 15 years, they had not been audited. We have to follow the money from production to export to return, where is the money going? We paid N11tn in subsidy and there is no accountability up till now. The National Assembly called the NNPCL to bring the documents, but they refused.”