THE Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited under former Group Managing Director, Mr Mele Kyari, spent nearly $3 billion on the rehabilitation of Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna refineries, but none of them is working at the moment.

In March 2021, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved the sum of $1.5 billion for the rehabilitation of Port Harcourt refinery in Rivers State. The then Minister of State for Petroleum, Mr Timipre Sylva, said the rehabilitation would be done in three phases of 18, 24 and 44 months. By implication, Port Harcourt refinery was supposed to be completed in 3 years and 8 months.

In August 2021, FEC also approved the sum of $1.48 billion for the rehabilitation of both Warri and Kaduna refineries. This puts the budget for the three refineries at $2.98 billion – nearly $3 billion of public funds.

Failed promises

Mr Kyari gave various dates of completion for the refineries which did not happen. On September 21, 2019, Mr Kyari said Nigeria’s refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna would become operational and refine crude oil at optimum capacity by 2022. This was even before the contracts for the refineries were awarded.

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In November 2020, Mr Kyari told energy correspondents in Abuja that “the vision of revamping the pipelines is in tandem with the Refineries Rehabilitation Project which we have promised to deliver by 2023.”

He added, “I am happy to announce that the funding challenge which had stalled the second phase of the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt Refinery has been resolved. The contract for the second phase will soon be awarded and work will commence in Q1 of 2021,” he said.

On March 15, 2024, Mr Kyari also repeated his promise after failing to keep same earlier. The ex-NNPC GMD said the Port Harcourt refinery would begin production by the end of March 2024. Kyari spoke at a meeting with the Senate ad hoc committee investigating the various turnaround maintenance (TAM) projects of Nigerian refineries.

“In the next two weeks, production will start. We did mechanical completion of Port Harcourt, that was what we said in Dec 2023,” he said on March 15.

“That means we are done with our rehabilitation work, now you are to test if this completion is okay,” he noted. Mr Kyari also claimed that mechanical works had been completed at Warri refinery, noting that the facility was undergoing regulatory compliance procedures.

On November 26, 2024, the NNPC under Mr Kyari said Port Harcourt refinery had commenced production, claiming that truck loading of petroleum products began that day.

Former Chief Corporate Communications Officer, NNPC, Mr Femi Soneye, said this in a post on his X handle on November 26 morning. “PortHarcourt Refinery begins production; truck loading starts today, Tuesday,” Mr Soneye had said.

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On December 30, 2024, My Kyari claimed during a facility tour that Warri refinery had commenced operations.

Who are the contractors?

Maire Tecnimont SpA is the contractor that handled the rehabilitation of Port Harcourt refinery. The rehabilitation of Warri and Kaduna refineries were awarded to Saipem SPA and Saipem Contracting Limited at the combined total sum of $1.484 billion, according to former Minister of State for Petroleum, Mr Sylva.

Failure to compete

These promises given by Mr Kyari have failed to materialise. The Punch reported on June 25 that former NNPC spokesman, Mr Soneye, had told its correspondent on May 23 that the refinery would be shut down for maintenance. In fact, marketers said the refinery never produced petrol months before its latest shutdown.

IPMAN’s Publicity Secretary, Mr Chinedu Ukadike, had told the Punch that the refinery had not produced any fuel in the past few months, wondering why the NNPC was just announcing a shutdown at that time.

“The refinery has been down for years before it was rehabilitated and reopened last year. Now, they are shutting it down again. That means something is wrong. To the best of my knowledge, the refinery has not been producing anything in the past three months. This shutdown is just to save their face,” Mr Ukadike said.

Similarly, Warri refinery is still not working. In May 2025, the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN) called for the completion of rehabilitation work on the new Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna refineries.

President of PETROAN, Mr Billy Gillis-Harris, president of PETROAN, said: “Despite numerous assurances from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its officials, the projects have suffered repeated setbacks, with completion deadlines being missed multiple times,” he said.

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“PETROAN therefore demands that the NNPC provide a specific and realistic timeline for the completion and commissioning of these refineries, especially the second Port Harcourt Refinery rehabilitation project.”

Mr Kyari was sacked by President Bola Tinubu in early April 2025.

Calls for probe

Analysts say there is a need to probe Mr Kyari’s tenure extensively to find out how the contract for the refineries were awarded and whether this was the fault of contractors or Mr Kyari himself.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is currently investigating Mr Kyari and other officials over the money 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.

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“There is a need to investigate what the problems are with the refineries to find out if this was from the contractors or the NNPC itself. But I agree that there is a need to dig deeper into Kyari’s tenure than what is going on now.”

A United Kingdom-based investment consultant, Dr Chuka Chile, said: “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,.”