Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with two Chinese companies, Sanjiang Chemical Company Limited and Xingcheng (Fuzhou) Industrial Park Operation and Management Co. Ltd, for potential Technical Equity Partnership (TEP) in support of the completion and operation of the Port Harcourt and Warri Refineries.
NNPCL’s Chief Corporate Communications Officer, Andy Odeh, said in a statement that the MoU was signed by the Group CEO, NNPC Ltd, Engr. Bashir Bayo Ojulari; Chairman, Sanjiang Chemical Company, Guan Jianzhong and Chairman of Xinganchen (Fuzhou) Industrial Park Operation and Management Co. Ltd, Bill Bi, in Jiaxing City, China, on Thursday, April 30, 2026.
Federal Government had spent $2.39bn under the Buhari administration to repair the two refineries.
The Port Harcourt Refinery was said to have been completed, with production starting in November, 2024 but it was shut down after six months.
In March 2021, FEC had approved $1.5 billion for the rehabilitation of Port Harcourt refinery.
FEC had also approved $1.48bn for the rehabilitation of Warri and Kaduna refineries in August 2021.
The then Minister of state for petroleum resources, Timpere Sylva, had announced that the rehabilitation of Warri and Kaduna refineries would be awarded to Messers Saipem SPA and Saipem Contracting Limited at the combined total sum of $1.484 billion and would be rehabilitated in three phases of 21, 23 and 33 months.
Sylva had said $897,678,800 would be spent to repair Warri refinery while Kaduna refinery would gulp $586,902,256, noting that the completion of the rehabilitation exercise would be in three phases spread over 77 months period.
But Odeh in the statement released on Monday quoted the Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC Ltd, Engr. Bayo Ojulari as saying that the MoU execution served as a significant milestone, following more than six months of concerted engagement between the technical and management teams of NNPC and the two Chinese partners, Sanjiang and Xinganchen.
He did not say how much Nigeria would pay for the new rehabilitation.
“All parties recognise mutually beneficial opportunities for the development and long-term sustainable profitability of NNPC’s refining assets in Nigeria, and the collective weight required for success,” Ojulari noted.
The NNPCL boss further stated that the MoU is an important step in the journey towards identifying potential technical equity partner(s) to restart and expand NNPC’s refineries, and to explore opportunities in co-located petrochemicals and gas-based industries.
