The Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN) has criticised the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), attributing the shutdown of the Port Harcourt Refinery to incompetence, despite the $1.5 billion spent on its rehabilitation.
PETROAN’s National President, Billy Gillis-Harry, made this known in a telephone interview with DAILY POST on Saturday, shortly after NNPCL officially announced the refinery’s closure.
The company’s spokesperson, Olufemi Soneye, in a statement on Saturday, said the refinery was shut down for “planned maintenance and a sustainability assessment,” scheduled to begin on May 24, 2025. He did not disclose when operations would resume.
Reacting, Gillis-Harry said the shutdown reflected a deeper problem within NNPCL.
“The closure of the Port Harcourt Refinery confirms the incompetence and lack of sincerity by those managing it,” he said.
This development comes amid renewed concerns about the refinery’s production capacity, especially since it was declared resuscitated in November 2024. Just four days earlier, PETROAN had raised the alarm over persistent delays in the rehabilitation of the 210,000-barrel-per-day Port Harcourt Refinery, along with the Warri and Kaduna Refineries.
