Temitope Amosa, a Purdue graduate researcher, urged Nigeria to test robots able to handle refinery equipment, arguing they could limit workers’ exposure to hazardous tasks amid maintenance and safety challenges at state plants.
Amosa made the proposal in a Nov. 8, 2026, commentary for BusinessDay. He recommends a 12- to 18-month test on one process unit, robotics plans in refinery operating and maintenance contracts, and local development of equipment and algorithms. NNPC Ltd.’s May statement on a refinery partnership did not announce a robotics pilot.
In a May 4, 2026, announcement, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd.) said it had signed a memorandum of understanding on April 30 with Sanjiang Chemical Company Limited and Xinganchen (Fuzhou) Industrial Park Operation and Management Co. Ltd. The potential technical equity arrangement concerns unfinished work at the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries, along with their operation and maintenance. NNPC said the parties still needed to continue talks and obtain customary approvals before finalizing arrangements.
An October 2025 fact sheet from the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) recorded Port Harcourt’s restart on Nov. 26, 2024, followed by a May 24, 2025, shutdown for planned maintenance and a sustainability assessment. Warri restarted Dec. 28, 2024, and shut down Jan. 25, 2025, over critical safety concerns. In July 2025, NNPC Group Chief Executive Officer Bashir Bayo Ojulari described the earlier decision to operate Port Harcourt before rehabilitation was complete as “ill-informed and sub-commercial.”
A 2024 paper by PETRONAS and Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS researchers describes mobile-robot tests at oil and gas facilities, including valve operation. In one block-valve test, the robot arm hit its torque limit; lengthening the lever from 30 centimeters to 50 centimeters enabled it to complete the task twice. The reported trials do not document commercial deployment or use in Nigeria. A separate 2024 chapter by Peter Ørnulf Ivarsen and co-authors said valve manipulation was not supported by commercially available refinery robots at the time.
Amosa argues that robots could reduce hazardous exposure and refinery downtime. His commentary provides no Nigerian pilot results or estimates of the proposal’s effects on safety, output, profitability or jobs.
