The Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN) has renewed its call on the Federal Government to privatise Nigeria’s four state-owned refineries operated by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), urging that the process be transparently concluded by the first quarter of 2026.
In a statement released on Saturday, PETROAN’s National President, Billy Gillis-Harry, said decades of public investment in the refineries have failed to deliver meaningful commercial output, describing the continued government ownership of the facilities as fiscally wasteful and counterproductive to the growth of the downstream petroleum sector.
According to him, sustained public funding of the refineries has yielded little value, despite repeated turnaround maintenance exercises and rehabilitation promises. He argued that private sector participation has become inevitable if Nigeria is to achieve energy security, efficiency and long-term stability in fuel supply.
“Sustained public funding of the refineries has failed to deliver optimal results over the years, making private sector-led management inevitable if the country is to achieve energy security and stability in the downstream petroleum sector,” Gillis-Harry said.
PETROAN outlined several benefits it believes privatisation would bring, including improved operational efficiency through modern technical expertise, the attraction of fresh private capital, and a significant reduction in Nigeria’s dependence on imported petroleum products. The association also said the move would help conserve scarce foreign exchange reserves, stabilise fuel supply nationwide and create jobs across the petroleum value chain.
In addition, PETROAN argued that privatisation would free up government resources currently tied down in refinery maintenance, allowing funds to be redirected to more critical areas such as security, healthcare and infrastructure development.
The association stressed that a transparent and well-structured privatisation process would align Nigeria’s refining sector with global best practices, promote healthy competition and complement ongoing investments in upstream oil and gas production.
PETROAN linked its call to the assumptions underpinning the 2026 national budget, which projects crude oil production of 1.84 million barrels per day and an oil price benchmark of between $64 and $65 per barrel. According to the group, decisive reforms in the refining sector, combined with improved security for oil infrastructure, effective host community engagement under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), and well-funded regulatory agencies, would significantly boost investor confidence.
The renewed push comes amid ongoing debate within Nigeria’s oil and gas industry over the future of the refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna. While NNPCL has previously resisted full privatisation—particularly of the Port Harcourt refinery, which it reiterated plans to retain and rehabilitate as recently as mid-2025—pressure from industry stakeholders has intensified due to decades of underperformance and the economic burden on the state.
PETROAN maintained that privatisation is now central to unlocking the full potential of Nigeria’s oil and gas resources, ending the cycle of fiscal drain and positioning the downstream sector for competitiveness and sustainability in the coming years.
