Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has called on the Federal Government to suspend the recently announced partnership between the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and two Chinese firms for the management of the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries.
Atiku, in a statement issued on Friday through his spokesman, Phrank Shaibu, described the agreement as a risky and poorly scrutinised arrangement that could further endanger Nigeria’s troubled refining sector.
The former presidential candidate questioned the competence and technical capacity of the two firms – Sanjiang Chemical Company Limited and Xingcheng (Fuzhou) Industrial Park Operation and Management Co. Ltd – selected under the Memorandum of Understanding signed with the NNPCL.
According to him, the companies lack the proven expertise and global reputation required to rehabilitate and manage complex crude oil refineries such as those in Port Harcourt and Warri.
“We are demanding an immediate suspension and public scrutiny of the Technical Equity Partnership announced by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited involving two Chinese firms, Sanjiang Chemical Company Limited and Xingcheng (Fuzhou) Industrial Park Operation and Management Co. Ltd,” the statement said.
“It is both shocking and insulting that after wasting over $2.5 billion on endless refinery rehabilitation scandals, the NNPC is once again asking Nigerians to trust another experiment built on secrecy and questionable competence.”
Atiku argued that available records show Sanjiang Chemical’s operations are largely concentrated in petrochemical processing, including methanol-to-olefins, surfactants and light hydrocarbon production, rather than large-scale crude oil refining.
“There is no publicly available evidence anywhere in the world showing that Sanjiang has ever built, operated, or managed a full-scale crude oil refinery of the magnitude and complexity of Port Harcourt or Warri refineries,” he stated.
“Processing petrochemical derivatives is not the same as running an ageing national refinery burdened with decades of operational decay.”
He also questioned the suitability of Xingcheng (Fuzhou) Industrial Park Operation and Management Co. Ltd, alleging that the company’s profile did not reflect experience in refinery engineering or petroleum operations.
“By every available corporate and industry record, Xingcheng is essentially an industrial park and infrastructure management company – the equivalent of handing over a hospital’s intensive care unit to a real estate developer simply because they can construct buildings,” the statement added.
The former Vice President further criticised the Federal Government and the NNPCL for allegedly overlooking established international refinery engineering firms in favour of companies he said lacked the required pedigree.
He warned that the arrangement could become “another expensive black hole of failed promises, reckless experimentation, and opaque transactions.”
Atiku also raised concerns over the financial health of Sanjiang Chemical, claiming reports pointed to declining revenues, shrinking profitability and mounting debt exposure.
“This raises a fundamental question: if a company is already battling financial compression and liquidity concerns in its own operations, how exactly does it intend to shoulder the burden of reviving two of Africa’s most troubled refineries?” he queried.
He accused the authorities of attempting to repackage old refinery failures under a new foreign partnership narrative.
“Nigerians must not allow the same people who destroyed the refineries through incompetence and corruption to now hide behind vague Chinese partnerships to continue the cycle of deception,” he said.
“The era where NNPC signs opaque agreements abroad and expects Nigerians to clap blindly is over. National assets are not toys for bureaucratic experimentation. The Port Harcourt and Warri refineries are too strategic to be surrendered to uncertainty, obscurity, and corporate guesswork.”