Nigeria: NNPC Signs MOU With Chinese Firms for Port Harcourt, Warri Refineries Restart

4 May 2026
Leadership (Abuja)
By NSE Anthony-Uko

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Sanjiang Chemical Company Limited and Xingcheng (Fuzhou) Industrial Park Operation and Management Co. Ltd for a potential Technical Equity Partnership to complete, operate, and upgrade the Port Harcourt and Warri Refineries.

Chief corporate communications officer of the company Andy Odeh, who stated this on Monday, the agreement, inked in Jiaxing City, China, on April 30, 2026, by NNPC Ltd Group CEO Bashir Bayo Ojulari and the Chinese firms' chairmen, aims to boost sustainable performance, expand petrochemical capacities, and develop gas-based industrial hubs.

The NNPC said the potential framework would cover completion of outstanding work at the two refineries, together with operating and maintaining both facilities to achieve best-in-class, sustainable performance.

"Planned expansion and upgrades would elevate both facilities to cleaner, more profitable product standards. The potential collaboration also contemplates expanding the refineries' petrochemical capacities and harnessing gas and downstream opportunities through the development of co-located, gas-based industrial hubs," the company stated.

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Speaking shortly after the signing, the GCEO of NNPC Ltd, Ojulari, described the MoU execution 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.

"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 GCEO further stated that the MoU is an important step on 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.

The MoU reflects the parties' shared intent to progress discussions in good faith, with any definitive arrangements to follow in due course and subject to customary approvals.

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