The Nigerian Society of Chemical Engineers (NSChE) has called on the Federal Government to immediately halt further public spending on the nation’s state-owned refineries and adopt a transparent, competitive, and time-bound privatisation process.
Speaking at a national press conference titled “Nigeria’s Moribund Refineries Need New Governance” held at 10:00 AM on Tuesday, October 20, 2026, at the NSChE National Secretariat in Abuja, the National President of the Society, Engr. Bayo Olarewaju-Alo, FNSChE, declared that majority private ownership and professional management are the only viable paths to restoring the country’s refining infrastructure.
Addressing energy correspondents and industry stakeholders, Engr. Olarewaju-Alo pointed out that Nigeria has poured billions of dollars into rehabilitation programmes for the Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna refineries over the past two decades without achieving sustained or competitive production.
”Nigeria has committed substantial public resources over more than 20 years to restoring these three refineries. Despite repeated turnaround maintenance and turnaround efforts, the facilities have failed to achieve reliable, sustained, or commercially viable production,” Olarewaju-Alo stated. “Further public rehabilitation expenditure must give way to a transparent divestment of majority equity holding to credible private investors.”
The NSChE outlined a structured roadmap designed to safeguard national assets while ensuring operational discipline; Divestment of controlling equity to technically and financially capable private investors who will assume full operational control, capital expenditure responsibility, and execution risk.
The Federal Government, through the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), may retain a non-controlling minority stake strictly to protect strategic public interests, without bearing financial shortfalls or day-to-day management burdens.
Inclusion of enforceable targets for investment, production output, environmental protection, workforce transition, and penalties for failing to meet performance benchmarks.
Complete transition of operational responsibility away from federal budgets, ensuring commercial discipline and public accountability.
Emphasising the need for professional oversight, Engr. Donatus Uweh, Publicity Secretary of the NSChE, added that professional engineering bodies must be integrated into the government’s divestment roadmap to avoid repeating past mistakes in asset sales.
The NSChE expressed its readiness to provide technical assistance to the Federal Government and NNPCL in areas such as Investor pre-qualification and financial capability auditing.
Technical bid evaluation and asset condition assessment and Post-transaction monitoring and workforce re-skilling frameworks.
Engr. Olarewaju-Alo concluded the address with an optimistic note on Nigeria’s energy independence. “The purpose of this call is not simply to sell off public assets, but to build a robust governance and investment framework capable of guaranteeing long-term energy security, local refining capacity, and national economic value.”
