Dangote: Nigeria’s Refineries May Never Work Again Despite $18bn Spent — Slams Systemic Failure

Billionaire industrialist Aliko Dangote has cast a dark shadow over the future of Nigeria’s state-owned oil refineries, warning that they may never operate effectively again despite over $18 billion spent on their rehabilitation.

Speaking on Thursday during a visit by members of the Lagos Business School’s Global CEO Africa group to the Dangote Petroleum Refinery in Lekki, Lagos, the President of Dangote Group said the chronic failure of the refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna points to deep-rooted inefficiencies within the system.

Dangote also revealed that his earlier attempt to acquire and manage the refineries was thwarted in 2007 when the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua reversed their sale, which had been approved under former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

“The refineries that we bought before were producing about 22 per cent of PMS,” Dangote said. “We bought them in January 2007, but a change in government led to their return. The then-managing director of NNPC convinced Yar’Adua that the refineries could be fixed.”

However, Dangote expressed strong skepticism about the viability of the turnaround maintenance projects.

“As of today, they have spent about $18 billion on those refineries, and they are still not working. I doubt very much if they will ever work,” he said.

Comparing the situation to outdated technology, he added, “It’s like trying to modernise a car built 40 years ago. Even if you change the engine, the body won’t be able to take the shock of the new technology.”

His comments mirror previous statements made by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who revealed that he had warned Yar’Adua against halting the sale of the refineries, citing NNPC’s inability to manage them effectively.

“I told him, ‘NNPC cannot do it.’ And I said when you want to sell them again, you won’t get $200 million for them as scrap. That is the situation we are in,” Obasanjo said in an earlier interview.

Obasanjo also accused NNPC officials of perpetuating corruption, stating bluntly: “In a civilised society, those people should be in jail.”

While Nigeria’s public refineries remain dormant, the Dangote Refinery — with a capacity of 650,000 barrels per day — is widely seen as a transformative force in the country’s petroleum sector, with the potential to significantly reduce fuel imports and boost domestic refining capacity.