Port Harcourt, Warri, Kaduna refineries may never work again — Dangote

The President of the Dangote Industries Limited (DIL), Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has warned that the four state-owned Kaduna, Port Harcourt I and II and Warri refineries may never  function again.

According to Dangote, the refineries, which are under the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), have refused to work despite gulping about $18billion in repair costs.

The Kano-born billionaire said this while hosting members of the Global CEO Africa from the Lagos Business School (LBS) after a tour of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery in Lekki, Lagos.

According to Dangote, the 650,000-capacity Dangote refinery, which he built after the government of late President Umar Yar’adua aborted his acquisition of the government refineries, now has over 50 per cent of its output dedicated to Premium Motor Spirit (petrol), saying that government refineries committed just 22 per cent of their production to petrol while they were active.

Dangote recalled how he and his team had to return the refineries to government, a few months after former President Olusegun Obasanjo left office in 2007.

According to him, the former managers of the refinery had told Yar’Adua that Obasanjo sold the facilities below their costs as a parting gift to him.

“The refineries that we bought before, which were owned by Nigeria, were doing about 22 per cent of PMS. We bought the refineries in January 2007. Then we had to return them to the government because there was a change of government.

“And the managing director at that time convinced Yar’adua that the refineries would work. They said they just gave them to us as a parting gift or so.

“And as of today, they have spent about $18billion on those refineries, and they are still not working. And I don’t think, and I doubt very much if they will work”, he said.

Dangote emphasized that the turnaround maintenance of the refineries was like trying to modernise a car built 40 years ago, when technology has advanced.

“The turnaround maintenance is like you trying to modernise a car that was built 40 years ago, when technology and everything have changed. Even if you change the engine, the body will not be able to take the shock of that new technology engine”, he stated.

Dangote’s comment buttressed former President Obasanjo’s comments last year on the refineries, two of which were shut down again after they were declared operational by the former NNPC Group Managing Director, Mele Kyari, in the last quarter of 2024.

Obasanjo had stated that the NNPC was aware that it could not operate the refineries, saying international oil companies like Shell once refused to run the facilities when he requested them to do so.

According to Obasanjo, some Nigerians, including Aliko Dangote, had paid $750million to take over the refineries; however, his successor, Yar’adua, aborted the deal.

“I ran to him (Yar’Adua), I said, ‘You know this is not right’. He said, ‘Well, NNPC said they can do it.’ I said, ‘NNPC cannot do it,’ I told my successor that ‘the refineries, from what I heard and know, will not work and when you want to sell them, you will not get anybody to buy them at $200million as scrap’. And that is the situation we are in.

“So, why do we do this kind of thing to ourselves? NNPC knew that they could not do it, but they knew they could eat and carry on with the corruption that was going on in NNPC. When people were there to do it, they put pressure. In a civilised society, those people should be in jail”, Obasanjo had stated.

In January 2025, Obasanjo again said: “I was told not too long ago that since that time, more than $2billion have been squandered on the refineries 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 (the refinery) is working, why are they now with Aliko (Dangote)? And Aliko will make his refinery work; not only make it work, he will make it deliver”.

Calls for the privatisation of the government-owned refineries have intensified following the recent shutdown of the old Port Harcourt and  Warri refinery six months and one month respectively after they were declared operational.