Warri and Port Harcourt Refineries Will Come Back to Work, Tinubu Promises Again After 2024 Celebrations Ended in Shutdown

West Africa WeeklyAugust 14, 20264 Mins read18

President Bola Tinubu has once again assured Nigerians that the Warri and Port Harcourt refineries will soon resume operations, a promise that follows a familiar pattern of celebration and disappointment that has characterised Nigeria’s refinery rehabilitation efforts for decades. Tinubu gave the pledge on Thursday during a meeting with the leadership of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers at the Presidential Villa in Abuja. He said his administration is building a very firm reset and structural reworking of the economics of the refineries. “Ordinary flame and smoke of refinery doesn’t mean that it’s working until it’s profitable and yield the value for which it is built,” Tinubu said. He also took responsibility for the failures of his predecessors, stating: “I’m not a man who look back and everything because I’ve accepted the asset and liability of my predecessors, no matter what has happened in the years past, it’s my responsibility now as the president to fix it.”

But Tinubu has made this promise before, and Nigerians have watched it crumble. The refineries were shut down because they were not commercially viable. In February 2026, NNPC Group Chief Executive Officer Bayo Ojulari gave the official reason: the refineries were operating at between 50 and 55 percent capacity, which was not enough. Operating costs kept rising and their products were of low quality, leading to great losses. “The first thing that became clear is that we were running at a monumental loss to Nigeria. We were just wasting money,” Ojulari said. He also disclosed that there was political pressure to keep the refineries running despite the losses. The decision to shut them down, he said, was necessary to end decades of self-deception. “For years, we told ourselves stories. But the numbers never supported those stories.”

In 2024, Tinubu celebrated the reopening of both the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries as major achievements. In November 2024, the Port Harcourt Refinery, rehabilitated at a cost of $1.5 billion under the leadership of former NNPC GCEO Mele Kyari, was reopened after about three years of rehabilitation. Tinubu congratulated the NNPC on the successful revitalisation of the refinery. He also commended the NNPC for completing the refurbishment of the Warri refinery, which reportedly kicked off operations at 60 percent capacity. In December 2024, he described the reopening of the Warri Refinery as a remarkable way to end the year. He directed the prompt reactivation of the Warri and Kaduna refineries. But the celebrations were short-lived. The Port Harcourt refinery was shut down again in May 2025 due to sustained financial losses. By February 2026, Ojulari had publicly declared that the reopening of the Port Harcourt Refinery was a huge waste of resources. The Warri refinery, which had been moribund for decades due to technical problems, was brought back to life on December 30, 2024, but was shut down on January 25, 2025, due to safety issues in its Crude Distillation Unit Main Heater. It was shut down barely a month after Kyari declared it operational.

The scale of the waste is staggering. Between 2023 and 2024 alone, NNPC injected an estimated N13.2 trillion into the country’s three state-owned refineries, largely to fund turnaround maintenance, operations, and associated bank charges. The Port Harcourt refinery’s obligations to NNPC rose from about N1.99 trillion in 2023 to N4.22 trillion in 2024, an increase of more than N2.22 trillion in one year. The Warri refinery’s obligations climbed from about N1.17 trillion in 2023 to N2.06 trillion in 2024. Tinubu’s latest promise comes just months after his own NNPC chief admitted that the refineries are not commercially viable and that reopening them was a waste of resources. The same President who celebrated the reopening of the refineries in 2024 is now promising that they will come back to work. The same government that spent N13 trillion on refineries that failed to produce sustainable output is now promising a fresh reset.

Tinubu also appealed to NUPENG to ensure that ordinary Nigerians benefit from the Compressed Natural Gas initiative, noting that the benefits are currently going to truck owners and not spreading as fast as he would like. But Nigerians are tired of appeals. NUPENG President Salimon Akanni Oladiti commended the government’s efforts on federal highways, noting that good roads mean fewer accidents, fewer spillages, fewer lives lost, and lesser stress for tanker drivers. But Nigerians are asking what good are roads if the refineries that supply the fuel are not working, and what good are roads if the cost of fuel has tripled and millions cannot afford to fill their tanks. Ojulari himself has been frank about the scale of the problem. “These refineries mean a lot to Nigerians emotionally. But emotion cannot replace truth.” He said NNPC is now focused on restructuring the refineries with credible partners. “We are not interested in cosmetics. We want real change.” The President said the economy is not a child’s play and that it requires financial reengineering and reset. He promised that Nigerians would enjoy a better Nigeria, comparing the struggle to the pain of childbirth followed by the joy of life.

But for millions of Nigerians who are struggling to afford food, fuel and rent, the pain has been going on for too long, and the joy seems further away than ever. Tinubu can promise another reset, he can order another rehabilitation, and he can sign another partnership with Chinese firms, but until the government confronts the truth that Ojulari has spoken, that the refineries have been a monumental loss and a waste of resources, Nigerians will continue to watch billions disappear and promises crumble. The Warri and Port Harcourt refineries have been non-functional for years. Billions have been spent. Deadlines have been missed. Promises have been broken. Tinubu is now the latest President to promise that they will come back to work.