The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) has ruled out the sale of the Port Harcourt Refining Company, affirming its commitment to completing a full-scale, high-grade rehabilitation of the facility.
Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC Ltd, Bayo Ojulari, made the announcement on Wednesday during a company-wide town hall meeting at the NNPC Towers in Abuja, following speculation sparked by his recent remarks at the 2025 OPEC Seminar in Vienna.
“The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has officially ruled out the sale of the Port Harcourt Refining Company,” a statement released after the meeting read.
“We remain focused on completing the rehabilitation and retaining the asset as a national energy infrastructure.”
Ojulari clarified that his earlier comment “all options are on the table” had been misunderstood. He stressed that technical and financial evaluations of Nigeria’s refineries in Port Harcourt, Kaduna, and Warri showed that selling the assets would result in value erosion, not recovery.
He described any move to restart operations before completing the rehabilitation as “ill-informed and sub-commercial.”
The development comes after Aliko Dangote, President of Dangote Industries, had called for the sale of the refineries. In response, Ojulari emphasized that advanced technical partnerships, rather than outright sales, would be pursued to upgrade and operate the facilities sustainably.
“This is not a policy shift,” Ojulari stated.
“It is the outcome of comprehensive internal reviews and a forward-looking business analysis.”
The announcement was welcomed with applause from hundreds of NNPC staff at the meeting, who described the decision as a clear signal of renewed business focus and national asset preservation.
The town hall also featured updates from executive vice presidents across the company’s major divisions Upstream, Downstream, Gas & Power, Finance, Business Services, and New Energy and was hailed as “candid and transformational.”
“The declaration reinforces NNPC’s role as a strategic custodian of national energy infrastructure,” the company said.
“It reflects a firm resolve to deliver full rehabilitation and ensure the long-term viability of Nigeria’s refineries.”
