Bayo Ojulari, chief executive officer of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), says Nigeria’s state-owned refineries collapsed because successive managers prioritised financing and engineering contracts over the hard work of running the plants.
Ojulari made the remarks at the just-concluded Nigerian International Energy Summit, where he argued that the system rewarded deal-making, not long-term performance.
“The reason our refineries have not worked is that we focused on the first two: financing and EPC,” he said, referring to engineering, procurement and construction contracts. “Anybody who finances a project expects margins and profitability. EPC contractors do their work, get paid and move on.”
