President Bola Tinubu vows to revive Nigeria’s refineries through a structural reset, promising reforms aimed at making the facilities productive and profitable.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has vowed to revive Nigeria’s refineries through a comprehensive reset and structural overhaul, insisting that the facilities must be repositioned to deliver value and operate profitably.
Tinubu made the commitment on Thursday in Abuja when he received the national executive of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), led by its National President, Comrade Salimon Akanni Oladiti, at the State House.
Responding to NUPENG’s appeal for the revival of the country’s refineries, the President said the Federal Government would pursue an evidence-based approach to addressing the structural, operational, financial and managerial challenges affecting the facilities.
“The refineries that you mentioned are going to come back to work; we’re just building a very firm reset and structural reworking of the economy of it,” Tinubu said.
He stressed that merely restarting a refinery would not amount to success unless it could operate efficiently, generate value and remain profitable.
“Ordinary flame and smoke of a refinery doesn’t mean that it’s working until it’s profitable and yields the value for which it is built,” the President said.
Tinubu said he accepted responsibility for fixing the assets inherited by his administration, regardless of the circumstances that contributed to their decline.
“No matter what has happened in the years past, it’s now my responsibility as president to fix it and make it work for the greatest common good of our population,” he said.
The President’s position comes amid renewed debate over the future of Nigeria’s state-owned refineries. Nigeria has four major government-owned refinery facilities in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna, with a combined installed capacity of about 445,000 barrels per day. Recent rehabilitation efforts have resulted in partial restarts at some facilities, but questions remain over sustained commercial operations and profitability.
In March 2026, Tinubu also established a Presidential Petroleum Reform and Value Optimisation Task Force to develop the next phase of structural reforms in the petroleum sector, including measures to optimise national energy assets and improve the sector’s competitiveness.
The President also promised greater inclusion of NUPENG in the implementation of the Presidential Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) Initiative.
He, however, challenged petroleum transport operators to ensure that the benefits of CNG translate into lower costs for commuters.
Tinubu said the savings from CNG were not spreading to commuters as quickly as desired, urging operators to pass the benefits down to passengers.
Tinubu also addressed concerns over the implementation of local government autonomy, saying constitutional issues surrounding the policy were being reviewed for possible fine-tuning.
He appealed to stakeholders to exercise patience and understanding as the review continues.
The President further recalled his relationship with the late Frank Kokori, a former NUPENG leader and prominent pro-democracy activist, acknowledging his contribution to Nigeria’s democratic development.
“You brought good memories of my relationship with Frank Kokori; may his soul rest in peace,” Tinubu said.
In his remarks, NUPENG President Salimon Oladiti commended Tinubu for removing the fuel subsidy, describing the decision as a courageous policy that had ended what he described as decades of financial drain on the country.
Oladiti said the removal of the subsidy had freed resources for infrastructure development and other sectors of the economy.
He specifically praised the Federal Government’s ongoing road construction and rehabilitation projects, including the 750-kilometre Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway and the 1,068-kilometre Sokoto-Badagry Superhighway.
According to him, improved roads are particularly important to tanker drivers and other petroleum-sector workers because they can reduce accidents, product spillages and fatalities.
However, the NUPENG president urged the Federal Government to sustain efforts to revive the refineries, arguing that functional domestic refining capacity would strengthen Nigeria’s energy security, reduce dependence on imported petroleum products and create more employment opportunities.
The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, also commended NUPENG for acknowledging what he described as the positive outcomes of the administration’s reform agenda.
Idris said the recognition by NUPENG was significant because trade unions had historically had contentious relationships with governments over economic policies.
The minister cited the removal of the fuel subsidy and increased minimum wage as examples of reforms that had affected workers and the wider economy.
At the end of the meeting, the NUPENG leadership decorated President Tinubu as the Grand Patron of the union.
The State House said the meeting reflected continued engagement between the Federal Government and organised labour on petroleum-sector reforms, energy security, infrastructure development and the broader economic reform agenda.
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