Dangote refinery has warned that despite its $20 billion facility producing more than enough petrol for domestic consumption, rising imports is still taking up 43 percent of Nigeria’s petroleum market, forcing the 700,000 bpd capacity refinery to export surplus fuel abroad.
In particular, the refinery says due to rising petrol imports by importers licenced by Nigeria’s ministry of petroleum resources and the national oil company, NNPC Limited, domestic demand becomes harder to predict.
David Bird, chief executive officer of Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals (DPRP) told Reuters that imports of premium motor spirit (PMS) otherwise called petrol supplied 43 percent of Nigeria’s petrol in July 2026, up sharply from about 12 percent in May this year.
The situation potentially adds a new twist to Nigeria’s uncertain fuel trade.
Official figures confirm the estimate. According to data from the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), in July, imports averaged 19.7 million litres per day, while total petrol supply stood at 45.5 million litres per day.
That implied that imports accounted for roughly 43.3 percent of PMS supply during the month. Domestic refineries (in this case only Dangote because the four state-owned facilities are off stream) supplied the remaining 25.8 million litres per day.
Dangote refinery, the only facility which has made Nigeria to be more self-sufficient in refined petroleum products, and a net-exporter of the products, warned that the growing presence of imported petrol has complicated production planning and inventory management.
As it stands, Dangote Refinery is exporting more petrol because imports now take a larger share of Nigeria’s domestic fuel market.
The refinery says its excess inventory is increasingly being sold overseas…
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Read Full Article by Ben Eguzozie at businessamlive.com
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