The Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN) has slammed the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Bayo Ojulari, over his comments about the Port Harcourt refinery.
On Wednesday, Ojulari asked Nigerians to appreciate the Dangote refinery, saying it provided a “breathing space” when state-owned refineries are not working.
“So we said, what’s the hurry? We have a refinery that is working. It’s not owned by NNPC, but it’s built in Nigeria, working in Nigeria,” Ojulari had said.
He also said the Port Harcourt plant was incurring monumental losses, which led to the facility’s closure.
However, in a statement on Wednesday, Joseph Obele, the National Public Relations Officer (PRO), PETROAN, faulted Ojulari’s stance that Nigerians should be “thankful” solely because of the success of the Dangote refinery.
PETROAN asked the NNPC executive not to use the failure of the state-owned asset as a basis for praising the Dangote refinery.
Acknowledging the strategic importance and commendable achievement of the privately owned refinery, he said private investment cannot replace the constitutional and economic obligation of the government to efficiently manage public assets.
“Dangote Refinery is a private investment driven by profit and efficiency. NNPC, on the other hand, holds national assets in trust for Nigerians. One cannot be used as an excuse for the failure of the other,” Obele said.
He warned that repeated public admissions of incompetence by NNPC leadership could erode investor confidence, weaken Nigeria’s energy security framework, and undermine years of policy efforts aimed at domestic refining, price stability, and job creation.
Obele called on the NNPC GCEO to understand that his appointment was to solve problems, “not to retreat behind the success of a private refinery”.
He described as “most worrisome” the assertion that there is no urgency to restart the Port Harcourt Refinery because Dangote is currently meeting Nigeria’s fuel needs.
“Such a statement is annoying, unacceptable, and indicative of leadership that is not solution-centric,” Obele said.
The PETROAN PRO said Nigeria cannot continue to normalise waste, institutional failure, and retrospective justification of poor decisions.
He stressed that admitting failure is only meaningful when followed by accountability, reforms, and a clear, credible plan to prevent recurrence.
Obele further said he will lobby civil society groups and relevant stakeholders to explore legal options “to demand the removal of the NNPC GCEO should the Port Harcourt Refinery fail to resume operations on or before 1 March 2026”.
