Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, in an interview with Channels on Thursday, went down memory lane on the problems the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) had with the refineries.
However, NNPC invited him to visit the refineries before criticising the government’s efforts.
Obasanjo said: “When I was President, I wanted to do something about the three refineries we have: Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna. Aliko got a team together after I asked Shell to come and run it for us. And Shell said they wouldn’t. I said, please come and take equity, they said no. I said okay, don’t take equity, come and run it, they said no.
“Later on, I called them. I called the boss of Shell to come and tell me what the problem was and he gave me four or five reasons. He said, first of all, they make a major profit from upstream, not from downstream. He said they run downstream just to keep their head above water.
“Two, our refineries were too small: 60,000 barrels, 100,000 barrels, and I think 120,000 barrels. He said that at that time, the average refinery was going for 250,000 barrels.
“Three, he said our refineries were not well maintained. Fourth, he said that there was too much corruption around the activities of our refinery and they would not want to get involved in that.”
Obasanjo revealed that when Shell chickened out, Aliko Dangote, signified interest by bringing together a team and paying $750m to operate the refineries through a public-private partnership.
Obasanjo continued: “Aliko got a team together and they paid $750m to take part in PPP (Public–Private Partnership) in running the refineries. My successor refunded their money, and I went to my successor; I told him what transpired; he said NNPC said they wanted the refinery and they could run it, and I said, but you know they cannot run it,” Obasanjo stated.
“I was told not too long ago that since that time, more than $2bn have been squandered on the refinery and they still will not work.
“If a company like Shell tells me what they told me, I will believe them. If anybody tells you now that it is working, why are they now with Aliko? And Aliko will make his refinery work; not only make it work, he will make it deliver.”
Despite that on December 31, 2024, the Group Chief Executive Officer of the NNPCL, Mele Kyari, said the Warri Refining & Petrochemical Company in Delta State had commenced operations and that on November 26, the NNPC said the Port Harcourt refinery had officially commenced crude oil processing, Obasanjo buttressed his statement with a proverb, comparing these claims to a farmer who planted 100 heaps of yam but falsely claimed to have planted 200.
“They say after he has harvested 100 heaps of yam, he will also have 100 heaps of lies. You know what that means,” he said.
However, the NNPCL spokesperson, Femi Soneye, has invited Obasanjo for a sightseeing tour of the Port Harcourt refinery to verify its operational status. “We extend an open invitation to President Obasanjo for a tour of the rehabilitated refineries to witness firsthand the progress made under the new NNPC Limited.
“As part of this transformation, NNPC Limited has gone beyond oil and gas to become an integrated energy company. One of our notable achievements is the complete rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt Refining Company and Warri Refinery.
“This process was not merely the Turnaround Maintenance of the past but a full-scale overhaul designed to meet world-class standards. Similarly, we are currently conducting the same comprehensive rehabilitation of the old Port Harcourt Refinery and Kaduna Refinery.”
NNPCL, according to him, has evolved from being a government corporation to a private entity with limited liability, the reason for which it moved on from being a loss-making organization to a profit-driven international energy firm.