Local Supply Boosts Dangote’s Refinery. The 650,000 barrels Lagos based refinery has witnessed increased local supply aimed at boosting Nigeria’s energy sector.
KaNO—
Dangote Refinery and other local plants have received approximately 18 million barrels of crude oil from domestic sources, revealing a sharp drop on crude imports in April 2026.
This was revealed by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority Fact Sheet for April 2026.According to NMDPRA,a total of 18.37 million barrels of crude oil was supplied to domestic refineries for the month, 17.96 m Dr Huillion barrels came from local sources, while only 410,000 were imported.
This represents a great reduction in import dependence when compared to previous months.In March 9.43 million barrels was imported while 4.25 million barrels was imported in February.
The Dangote refinery had earlier decried the looming crude shortage, saying it was getting just five cargoes instead of 15 cargoes.
Local Supply Boosts Dangote’s Refinery
However, the latest developments reveal a significant improvement in domestic crude supply to local refineries, even though pricing remains a major bone of contention between oil producers and refiners.
According to the NMDPRA report,domestic refineries received an average of 612,000 barrels per day in April, with local crude accounting for 599,000 bpd and imports shrinking to a negligible 13,700 bpd.
The lion share was received by the Dangote refinery, which operated at an average capacity utilisation of 99.12 per cent, achieving 100 per cent utilisation on most days in April.
Following an improvement in crude supply, the Dangote refinery produced 53.6 million litres per day of petrol, 23.6 million litres per day of diesel and 22.9 million litres per day of Aviation Turbine Kerosene (jet fuel).
Local Supply Boosts Dangote’s Refinery
For the PMS produced,40.7 million litres per day were supplied to the domestic market, while 17.1 million litres per day were exported. Similar export volumes were recorded for diesel (17.8 ML/D) and jet fuel (20.5 ML/D).
Stakeholders believed that the improved local crude supply, especially under the naira-for-crude deal, and high refinery performance helped push the total PMS daily supply to 44.4 million litres per day in April, up from 40.1 million daily in March.
Domestic PMS supply has increased to 40.7 ML/D while imports fell to just 3.7 ML/D.Daily PMS consumption (volumes trucked out) stood at 51.1 ML/D, slightly above the 2026 benchmark of 50 ML/D. National fuel sufficiency averaged 18 days for PMS and 39 days for diesel.
The operational modular refineries – WalterSmith, Edo Refinery, and Aradel – recorded varying capacity utilisation rates and collectively supplied an average of 0.559 ML/D of diesel to the domestic market
NMDPRC described the development as a strong indicator of Nigeria’s growing energy self-sufficiency.
Local Supply Boosts Dangote’s Refinery
However, despite the sharp drop in crude imports and robust performance by the Dangote Refinery, pump prices of petrol remained high because of the Middle East crisis. In Maiduguri, the maximum actual pump price hit N1,413 per litre, the highest in the country. Average actual prices ranged from N1,271.50 in Lagos to N1,371.50 in Maiduguri.
The continued shutdown of the three government owned refineries remains a major gap in Nigeria’s refining capacity. Analysts and financial experts said full rehabilitation of these facilities, alongside consistent crude supply to Dangote and modular plants, will be key to further stabilising prices and deepening domestic supply.
Dangote Reject NNPCL’s Bid To Increase Stake In The Dangote Refinery
The President of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has revealed that the group rejected requests by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited to increase its 7.25 per cent stake in the Dangote Petroleum Refinery.
Local Supply Boosts Dangote’s Refinery
This came as findings showed that petrol supply from the $20bn Lagos refinery rose to 3.18 billion litres in the first quarter of 2026, while imports fell sharply to 965.52 million litres.
Further findings indicated that the average domestic ex-depot petrol price from the Dangote refinery across January to March 2026 was about ₦1,000 per litre. This implies that the multi-billion-dollar plant supplied over N3.2tn worth of petrol domestically during the review period.
Dangote added that the NNPC’s offer to increase its 7.25 per cent stake in the refinery was rejected because the company is planning to go public and give other Nigerians the opportunity to own shares in the plant.
It was reported that in 2021, the NNPC acquired the 7.25 per cent stake in the refinery for $1bn, with an option to acquire the remaining 12.75 per cent stake by June 2024. But the national oil firm reneged on its decision.
Local Supply Boosts Dangote’s Refinery
Responding to questions on what could be the biggest risks to his businesses, Dangote mentioned civil war and government policy inconsistencies.
Actually, if there are civil wars, which is not in the offing at all” he said
“The other biggest risk is government inconsistencies in policies, and we are addressing that one because if you look at our refinery, the national oil company already owns 7.25 per cent, and they are trying to buy more. We are the ones that said no; we want to now spread it and have everybody be part of it.” he added
Local Supply Boosts Dangote’s Refinery
“What we are announcing is that when you invest in any of our businesses going forward, in cement or in the refinery, in petrochemicals, in fertiliser, we guarantee to pay you a dividend in dollars because we are very well into exports. 80 per cent of our revenue will be in dollars,” he said
To raise funds for building the refinery, Dangote said he got a lot of support from various financial institutions, including Nigerian banks.
According to him, the initial plan was to fund most of the construction work from the internally generated funds.
“Due to naira devaluation, the group had to rely on Afreximbank, Africa Finance Corporation, Zenith Bank, Access Bank, UBA and a couple of the local banks, but of course we also have a very good relationship with the Standard Bank of South Africa and, at the beginning, Standard Chartered Bank of the UK”he stated
Local Supply Boosts Dangote’s Refinery
He maintained that the company was lucky and what happened when the plant was completed turned out to be much more than expectations.
