Festus Osifo, president of PENGASSAN, disclosed this on Tuesday while speaking on Channels Television’s Morning Brief programme. He said the facility is largely ready for operation, but the final decision rests with NNPC, which must consider the commercial viability of restarting the plant.
According to Osifo, the refinery can be switched on immediately from a technical standpoint, stressing that the rehabilitation work has progressed to a level where operations are feasible.
“As of today, you can start the old Port Harcourt refinery, and it will function. You can put it on today, and it will function,” he said.
He explained, however, that profitability remains a critical concern for NNPC, noting that the company is guided by commercial considerations in deciding when to resume operations.
“If they want to start the old refinery today, within the next one week, they can bring it back to life. It has been rehabilitated up to about 90 per cent,” Osifo added.
Despite the advanced stage of rehabilitation, Osifo warned that the refinery could still operate at a loss due to the disparity between the cost of crude oil input and the revenue from refined products.
He said that processing crude oil valued at about $5 million could yield refined products worth roughly $4.5 million, resulting in a negative margin and potential operating losses.
“So, you feed in crude of $5 million as input and get $4.5 million as output because it is rehabilitated over 90 per cent,” he said, adding that such a scenario would make the refinery commercially unattractive in the short term.
Nonetheless, Osifo insisted that the funds spent on rehabilitating the Port Harcourt refinery were not wasted, pointing to extensive upgrades carried out on key infrastructure within the facility.
He said major components such as compressors, control rooms and electrical panels were replaced during the rehabilitation process and remain installed at the refinery.
“The money that was thrown into the Port Harcourt refinery is not a loss. Almost all the compressors were changed, the control rooms were changed, and the panels were all changed. The contractors did not take them away,” he said.
According to him, these improvements have significantly enhanced the asset’s value compared to its condition before the rehabilitation exercise.
“In fact, if you value the refinery today, it will be much more valuable compared to the state it was in before the rehabilitation,” Osifo said.
His comments come against the backdrop of recent remarks by Bayo Ojulari, group chief executive officer of NNPC Limited, who on February 4 said the Warri, Port Harcourt and Kaduna refineries were shut down due to what he described as monumental losses.
Ojulari also noted that Nigeria’s state-owned refineries have struggled historically due to an operational focus centred on financing and contracting exploration, production and construction (EPC) companies.
The Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC) was shut down for maintenance in May 2025, and in November 2025, NNPC announced plans to explore partnerships with private refinery operators to rehabilitate and manage the country’s ailing refineries following an internal review.