The Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN) has attributed the recent shutdown of the Port Harcourt Refinery to incompetence on the part of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), despite the company spending $1.5 billion on its rehabilitation.

PETROAN's National President, Billy Gillis-Harry, made this revelation during a telephone interview on Saturday, following NNPCL's announcement of the refinery's closure.

"The shutdown of the state-owned refinery showed that the managers of Port Harcourt Refinery are incompetent and insincere all along," Gillis-Harry stated.

NNPCL, through its spokesperson Olufemi Soneye, had announced on Saturday that the refinery would be shut down for "planned maintenance and sustainability assessment" beginning May 24, 2025. However, no timeline was provided for when operations would resume.

The shutdown comes just six months after the refinery was reportedly resuscitated in November 2024, raising questions about its actual petroleum production capacity during this period.

This development follows recent concerns raised by PETROAN regarding delays in the rehabilitation of not only the 210,000 barrels-per-day Port Harcourt Refinery but also the Warri and Kaduna Refineries.

The association had previously called on President Bola Tinubu to intervene in the delays affecting the revamp of these critical national assets.

Industry observers note that the shutdown raises serious questions about the effectiveness of the $1.5 billion rehabilitation project and the management of Nigeria's refining capacity, which continues to impact the country's petroleum products supply chain.