Groups Hail NNPC-China Refinery Deal As Energy Security Boost

The Nigeria Citizens Watch for Good Governance has hailed the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and two Chinese firms for the rehabilitation, restart and expansion of the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries.

It called it a strategic masterstroke for energy security and economic renewal.

In a statement signed by Collins Eshiofeh, the chairman of the group, the civil society organisation said it had reviewed the scope, strategic context, and calibre of partners involved in the MoU with Sanjiang Chemical Company Limited and Xinganchen (Fuzhou) Industrial Park Operation and Management Co., Ltd.

It stated that the agreement, if faithfully executed, would fundamentally restructure Nigeria’s downstream petroleum sector, strengthen energy security, create mass employment, and halt the recurrent haemorrhage of scarce foreign exchange on fuel imports.

The group described it as arguably the most consequential refinery intervention since the country’s return to democratic governance.

The organisation recalled that for decades successive administrations and previous NNPC leaderships had allocated and allegedly expended billions of dollars on turnaround maintenance and rehabilitation with little result.

It cited figures from newspaper reports showing $520 million spent under General Sani Abacha, $92 million under Abdusalami Abubakar, over $800 million under Olusegun Obasanjo, $257 million under Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, $495 million under Goodluck Jonathan, and $2.39 billion under Muhammadu Buhari.

The group said the public was repeatedly shown flaring and smoke from the stacks only for the refineries to collapse within days or hours while the funds vanished.

“The billions wasted in the past were wasted by other hands, not by Bayo Ojulari. Since his arrival, the approach has been commercially disciplined, transparent, and anchored on equity partnerships that share risk,” it clarified.

It said the difference this time was the calibre of the Chinese partners, noting that Chinese firms dominate global infrastructure, manufacturing and energy technology through innovation, disciplined execution and technical know-how.

The group cited the Abuja-Kaduna and Lagos-Ibadan railways and the Lekki Deep Sea Port as examples of Chinese-delivered projects functioning daily in Nigeria.

Under the MoU, Sanjiang Chemical and Xinganchen would take an equity stake that aligns their balance sheets with the operational fate of Port Harcourt and Warri.

The agreement covers not just rehabilitation and restart but long-term operations, maintenance, expansion, deeper petrochemical capacity and co-located gas-based industrial hubs.

The group clarified that the MoU was a preliminary, non-binding agreement to explore collaboration and develop a framework for partnership, not an award of contract or commitment to further rehabilitation spending.

It said the next step was to define the commercial, technical and operational framework for a future incorporated joint venture, calling it commercial prudence rather than the opaque deals of the past.

It lamented that Nigeria, despite having high-quality crude, still exports crude and imports refined products at high cost, a situation it said was dragging down the naira and fuelling inflation.

Refining domestically, it argued, was the only sustainable way to save foreign exchange, stabilise the currency and reduce pump price volatility.

While acknowledging the Dangote Refinery as a monumental private investment, the group said energy security for 200 million Nigerians could not rest on one private venture and that functioning state-owned refineries were necessary.

The group praised NNPC Ltd GCEO Engr. Bashir Bayo Ojulari and his team for their technical grounding and resolve to make the refineries work.

It said Ojulari conducted six months of engagement before securing the Chinese partnership and that since he assumed office in 2025, NNPC Ltd had not committed to any new rehabilitation programme, focusing instead on equity partnerships that share risk.

It urged the National Assembly and anti-corruption agencies to support oversight that strengthens performance.

The organisation also aligned with the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers under Comrade Otunba Salmon Akanni Oladiti.

It stated that the union’s endorsement and call for transparency, professionalism and timely execution was significant.

It urged Nigerians to give the partnership a chance, saying that the flaring stacks of Port Harcourt and Warri would soon burn steadily as a symbol of the country refining its own crude and restoring economic dignity.

“Very soon, the flaring stacks of Port Harcourt and Warri will not be staged for cameras. They will burn steadily as a symbol of a nation finally refining its own crude, reclaiming its economic dignity, and restoring hope,” the statement said.

Groups Hail NNPC-China Refinery Deal As Energy Security Boost is first published on The Whistler Newspaper