Chinese investors are reportedly in discussions with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) to take over the Port Harcourt Refinery in Rivers State. Bayo Ojulari, the group managing director of the NNPCL, disclosed this potential partnership on 5 February 2026 without naming the potential investors due to the ‘commercial sensitivity’ of the discussions. However, he said the talks were with one of the ‘biggest petrochemical plants in China.’ Discussions are also ongoing with other potential partners, according to Ojulari. The interested Chinese investors paid a visit to the Port Harcourt refinery on 6 February 2026 to inspect the plant. The NNPCL is yet to say if they have made any progress in the discussions or when the new commercial partners for the refinery will be announced. 

By the end of January 2026, all four of the NNPCL’s refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna were shut down. Only the Port Harcourt refinery continued to show some activity, as diesel produced during the brief period it was operational was still being evacuated daily. No activity took place at the Warri and Kaduna refineries, which have all been largely non-operational for decades despite the billions spent trying to revamp them. 

Ojulari argued that one of the biggest challenges was that the NNPCL did not have the operational capacity to manage the plants. Before his appointment, the NNPCL had focused on restoring the plants without considering the fact that they would not have the capacity to operate them once restored. Ojulari said that he planned to correct this with the assistance of strategic partners, and that he had been looking for operators with a strong track record and technical capacity of running refineries. NNPCL is willing to sell a stake in the refineries to the potential new managers to ensure that they have a stake in their success. So far, however, only the Port Harcourt refinery has attracted any significant interest from investors, perhaps because the government has recently spent billions trying to revive it, albeit without success. 

The NNPCL is not expected to face any serious resistance in its bid to offload the refineries as they have become a drain on public finances. What is more, the operations of these refineries are no longer as significant to the economy as they were before the giant Dangote Refinery – which has more capacity than all the NNPCL plants combined – came on stream.

The February 2026 issue of Nigeria Focus also includes the following:

Implications

Spotlight

• INEC’s new election date puts opposition under pressure
• Amended electoral act heightens concerns about rigging 2027 elections
• Controversy over e-transmission hides other key changes to electoral law
• Amendment silent on defections
• Kwankwaso faces a political demise
• El Rufai likely provoking confrontation with authorities to damage president’s political goodwill

Economy

• Inflation data losing credibility due to repeated tweaks
• Clearing backlog of capital expenses to put pressure on central bank

Energy

• Dangote preparing daughters to take over expanding empire
• Dangote Refinery raises gasoline supply and is set to become dominant
• NNPCL banks on China to revive the nation’s moribund refineries
• Tinubu’s executive order targets NNPCL’s oil and gas profits

Security

• US calls for an end to Sharia laws will raise religious tensions in the North

Numbers