Port Harcourt refinery shutdown enters second month amid EFCC probe, diesel price hike and growing calls for privatisation by marketers and private sector

Port Harcourt refinery shutdown has entered its second month, sparking renewed outrage from fuel marketers, scrutiny from the anti-graft agency EFCC, and widespread demands for privatisation of Nigeria’s state-owned refineries.

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The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) had in May announced a temporary shutdown of the Port Harcourt Refining Company for maintenance. However, six weeks later, there has been no official update, and operations remain suspended.

Petroleum marketers, already struggling with unstable supply chains, protested in Port Harcourt on Tuesday over arbitrary diesel price hikes.

According to them, the refinery raised the price of diesel from N930 to N980, then to N1,130 per litre within one week—despite holding old stock in its tanks. “You must honour the N980/litre rate. We cannot keep absorbing the cost of arbitrary changes,” one protester told reporters.

The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) demanded that NNPCL either load trucks at the agreed price or refund previous payments. Senior refinery officials have since promised to escalate the issue to NNPC headquarters in Abuja.

Meanwhile, the refinery’s halted operations come amid ongoing investigations by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) into the controversial multi-billion dollar rehabilitation programme for Nigeria’s three refineries.

Former NNPC Chief Financial Officer, Umar Isa, was recently arrested over a \$7.2bn fraud related to the turnaround maintenance of Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna refineries.

EFCC is probing how \$1.5bn was allocated to the Port Harcourt refinery, \$740m to Kaduna, and \$657m to Warri. Former top executives of the affected facilities have also been named in the investigation.

Declared operational in November 2024 by then-GCEO Mele Kyari, the Port Harcourt refinery was said to have resumed refining diesel, low-pour fuel oil, and naphtha.

With a daily capacity of 1.5 million litres of diesel and 2.1 million litres of pour fuel oil, the plant was to supply up to 200 trucks of refined fuel nationwide.

But the plant was shut again after six months, allegedly for one-month maintenance—an exercise that has now stretched into its seventh week. The NNPC has provided no formal clarification, and efforts to reach the company have failed.

The situation is further compounded by revelations from NNPC’s April 2025 performance report, which confirmed that the operational status of all three state-owned refineries remains “under review.”

Stakeholders, including members of the Organised Private Sector and petroleum marketers, have called for the urgent privatisation of the refineries.

They argue that the public sector has repeatedly demonstrated its inability to manage the facilities efficiently, citing the Port Harcourt refinery’s history of missed deadlines, inflated costs and repeated shutdowns.

PETROAN, a leading oil marketers group, had previously warned that the refinery would be of no value unless it included a Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) blending unit.

They insisted that the entire maintenance process should factor in the unit or risk rendering the rehabilitation effort ineffective.

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With rising public frustration, suspended operations, and an EFCC probe intensifying, the future of Nigeria’s refineries remains uncertain. Industry watchers believe decisive action—either in the form of transparency, structural reform, or full privatisation—may be the only way out of the current deadlock.