The Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN) has intensified its campaign for the privatization of Nigeria’s four state-owned refineries managed by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), calling for the process to be transparently completed by the first quarter of 2026.
In a statement released, PETROAN’s National President, Billy Gillis-Harry, described years of heavy public investment in the refineries as a persistent failure that has yielded little to no commercial output.
He argued that continued government ownership is creating unnecessary fiscal waste and hindering progress in the downstream petroleum sector.
“Sustained public funding of the refineries has failed to deliver optimal results over the years, making private sector-led management inevitable if the country is to achieve energy security and stability in the downstream petroleum sector,” Gillis-Harry stated.
PETROAN emphasized that privatization would deliver multiple benefits, including:
- Improved operational efficiency and modern technical expertise
- Attraction of fresh private capital and investment
- Reduced dependence on imported petroleum products
- Conservation of foreign exchange reserves
- Enhanced fuel supply stability and job creation across the value chain
Freeing up government resources for critical priorities such as security and infrastructure
The group stressed that a well-executed, transparent privatization process would align Nigeria’s refining sector with global best practices, encourage healthy competition, and complement ongoing upstream investments in oil and gas production.
PETROAN also linked its call to the framework of the 2026 national budget, which assumes a crude oil production target of 1.84 million barrels per day and an oil price benchmark of $64–65 per barrel.
The association expressed confidence that decisive refinery reforms combined with improved security for oil infrastructure, effective host community engagement under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), and adequately funded regulators would significantly boost investor confidence and overall sector performance.
The renewed push comes amid ongoing debates in Nigeria’s oil industry. While NNPCL has previously resisted full privatization (particularly for the Port Harcourt refinery, which it committed to retaining and rehabilitating as recently as mid-2025), stakeholder pressure for private-sector involvement has grown due to decades of underperformance and economic drain.+See more than
PETROAN maintained that privatization is now central to unlocking the full potential of Nigeria’s oil and gas resources, ending the cycle of fiscal burden, and achieving a more stable and competitive downstream sector in the coming year.
𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗢𝘂𝗿 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁𝘀𝗔𝗽𝗽 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗹 𝗧𝗼 𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝗟𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀 𝗔𝘀 𝗜𝘁'𝘀 𝗗𝗿𝗼𝗽!
