The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited is actively working to increase its equity stake in the Dangote Petroleum Refinery to 20 percent, according to remarks made by Bayo Ojulari, the company’s Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO).
Speaking on Tuesday at the ADIPEC energy conference in Abu Dhabi, UAE, Ojulari disclosed the plan, which would see the national oil company nearly triple its current holding in Africa’s largest refinery project.
The announcement comes after a recent reduction in NNPC’s participation.
Original Proposal: In September 2021, NNPC proposed acquiring a 20 percent interest in the refinery for $2.76 billion.
In July 2024, Aliko Dangote, the refinery’s founder, confirmed that the national oil company had reduced its stake to 7.2 percent after failing to meet the full funding obligations for the original agreement.
The push to secure a larger stake is strategically significant as the NNPC’s three state-owned refineries—in Warri, Port Harcourt, and Kaduna—remain non-operational. NNPC confirmed in October that it had begun a comprehensive technical and commercial review of these moribund facilities.
Ojulari also used the international platform to highlight the NNPC’s transformation and its mandated journey toward an Initial Public Offering (IPO), as prescribed by the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
“The IPO journey is by law…It’s not an option for us,” Ojulari affirmed. He stressed that preparing for the IPO has necessitated a significant enhancement of transparency within the company.
“We have begun to publish our monthly performance since May this year and that has continued,” he added.
In line with this new commitment to openness, the national oil firm’s latest monthly report summary revealed a profit after tax (PAT) of N216 billion for September. This profit was recorded against a revenue of N4.26 trillion for the month, representing a decrease of 8.39 percent from the N4.65 trillion recorded in August.
