The President of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote has expressed doubts about the possibility of Nigeria’s state-owned refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna becoming operational again.
Dangote said despite investing approximately $18 billion in rehabilitation efforts, these refineries managed by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) remained non-functional.
He said this on Thursday while hosting members of the Global CEO Africa from the Lagos Business School, after a tour of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery in Lekki, Lagos.
Dangote recounted how he and his team acquired the refineries in January 2007, only to return them to the government months later due to a change in administration.
He said that the late President Umar Musa Yar’Adua’s administration reversed the sale, with NNPC officials alleging that the facilities were sold below value as a “parting gift” from former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
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).
He added that even government refineries committed just 22 per cent of their production to petrol.
“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 $18bn 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 emphasised 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 said.
Dangote likened the government’s efforts to revive the refineries to “trying to modernise a car built 40 years ago with new engine technology,” stating that the infrastructure cannot handle modern demands.
Dangote’s comment re-echoed Obasanjo’s comments last year about the refineries, two of which were shut down again after they were declared operational by the former NNPC Group Managing Director, Mele Kyari, in Q4 2024.
Obasanjo had said 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, once paid $750m 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 $200m 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.
Again, in January, Obasanjo said, “I was told not too long ago that since that time, more than $2bn 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.”
Obasanjo concluded with a Yoruba proverb, comparing inflated claims about the refineries’ performance to a farmer who planted 100 heaps of yam but falsely claimed to have planted 200.
“They say that after he has harvested 100 heaps of yams, he will also have 100 heaps of lies. You know what that means,” he said.
The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria and independent crude oil refiners had also urged the Federal Government to privatise or scrap the facilities, branding them economic liabilities.
They suggested redirecting proceeds from a potential sale to fund modular refineries, which would offer quicker returns on investment and better efficiency.
In contrast, the Dangote Refinery, with a capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, has started supplying over 20 million liters of petrol daily, covering nearly 40 per cent of domestic demand.
The refinery dedicated more than 50 per cent of its output to Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), significantly higher than the 22 per cent allocation from government-owned refineries.
