The Dangote Petroleum Refinery last week made its first Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) shipment to the United States, while local marketers insisted on fuel importation. This confirmed earlier reports that the refinery is exporting more fuels following the shutdown of some foreign refineries for maintenance.
According to S&P Global, 300,000 barrels of petrol left Nigeria on August 26, with an expected arrival at New York and New Jersey on September 12. This is even as fuel marketers in Nigeria still import more petrol into the country, ignoring the 650,000-barrel-per-day refinery in Lekki, Lagos.
The PUNCH reports that over one billion litres of imported petrol were supplied and distributed in June alone, according to the regulator. In a report, S&P Global said the shipment of petrol to the US by Dangote marked a new milestone for its reach beyond Africa.
Since starting operations in 2024, the refinery has aimed to capture Nigeria’s petrol market and break a long history of import dependence to supply the country’s fuel. Nigeria had for years depended on importation while selling its crude oil to other countries.
The President of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, said his plan was to make Nigeria and Africa energy independent and turn Nigeria into a net exporter of petroleum products. However, petroleum traders in Nigeria accused the billionaire of plots to monopolise the downstream sector, insisting fuel importation must continue.
Since the Dangote refinery began producing PMS last September, its supply has gradually found its way into a growing number of international markets, including neighbouring African countries, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia.
“A medium-range ship, Gemini Pearl, left the refinery’s Lekki seaport laden with around 300,000 barrels of gasoline on Aug. 26, with an expected arrival at New York and New Jersey on Sept. 12,” the report said, quoting S&P Global Commodities at Sea data.
Three market sources were said to have confirmed that “the ship loaded gasoline from the port, marking the inaugural export of the motor fuel to the US market.” The delivery was reportedly agreed under a private bilateral deal, contrasting with previous open market tenders issued by Dangote for other products like residual fuel.
With a domestic petrol market of about 300,000 barrels per day, Nigeria’s ballooning production from Dangote has promised to overhaul established import routes and drive out low-quality supplies. At its current 650,000 bpd capacity, the report said the refinery is expected to be capable of producing around 210,000 bpd of PMS at an 85 per cent utilisation rate, leaving it shy of domestic consumption that is anticipated to grow steadily each year.
With heavy importation still going on, especially through the Lomé, Togo route, the Dangote Group decided to diversify its consumer base and commercially optimise its trade flows. In a report by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, out of the 1.48 billion litres of petrol supplied in June, only 455,188,512 came from the Dangote refinery.
It was the same in May. 1.3 billion litres of petrol were imported, but about 473 million litres were supplied by Dangote, highlighting the country’s heavy dependence on imported fuel. During the sixth month of the year, Nigerian marketers imported 378.13 million litres of diesel, compared with just 54.05 million litres produced locally. Imports therefore accounted for 87 per cent of total supply, while refineries contributed only 13 per cent.
In May 2025, imports stood at 362.16 million litres, against 62.67 million litres from local refineries. That means 85 per cent of diesel came from imports, with local output making up just 15 per cent. Similarly, Nigeria imported 19.87 million litres of aviation turbine kerosene in June, compared with 17.79 million litres produced locally. Imports accounted for 53 per cent of the total supply, while local refineries delivered 47 per cent.
In May 2025, imports reached 42.27 million litres against 30.09 million litres from refineries. However, kerosene entirely depended on local refineries. Its supply was exclusively local in both months, as no imports were recorded. Refineries produced 7.79 million litres in June and 8.96 million litres in May.
Marketers react
The National President of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlet Owners Association of Nigeria, Billy Gillis-Harry, said marketers consider their profit margins before choosing who and where to buy from.
Gillis-Harry, who said he would need to confirm Dangote’s shipment of PMS to the US, described the feat as a welcome development. “If he’s exporting PMS to America, I think somebody like me should know, but I’m not aware of it yet, and I’m going to find out what the source is. But he is entitled to export what is being produced there and also export into Nigeria.
“In which case, those of us who are buying from him are buying it as an import. So, in PETROAN’s opinion, we view it as a very, very welcome idea because then it means that it will be another source of foreign exchange that will count in our balance of trade. So, other than that, anybody who is trading will trade based on the proposed cost analysis and projected profit analysis,” he said.
Gillis-Harry stressed that “If buying from the Dangote refinery would give importers a better deal, obviously, they will want to import from there. But if buying from the refinery does not give them that leverage, then they are free to import from whichever source, as long as the qualities are not compromised.”
Asked to state if he would prefer importation to buying from the refinery, he replied, “We buy products from different sources. Some of our price mechanisms prior to November last year were obviously much more beneficial than buying in-country, which actually defeats the purpose of why we all clamour for an in-country refining capacity.
“But every business has its own business model, and it’s not left for us to dictate to that business how it should be run. Which is why we only point out what will be beneficial and what will certainly create certain difficulties in running the downstream and midstream business in Nigeria.
“In our opinion, and in my personal opinion as the national president of PETROAN, it’s everywhere there is an opportunity to do business that will be beneficial to Nigerians that we should focus on. So, I’m sure that at some point, Dangote himself will realise that it’s better for him to work with stakeholders to ensure that the local traders and importers are effectively serviced to guarantee a full win of the refinery, which we all hope and wish for.”
On claims that some marketers import substandard and/or subsidised Russian fuel into the country, he said that is Aliko Dangote’s opinion. “That is his opinion. There is only one authority that can qualify that. That is the NMDPRA. No other person has the authority under our Constitution to dictate that.”
It was recalled that by the end of 2024, the refinery had begun “shipping its PMS to various African markets, including Cameroon, Ghana, Angola and South Africa, dealing either through traders like Trafigura and Vitol or directly with foreign counterparties.”
At the time, the Dangote Vice President, Devakumar Edwin, said West, Central, and Southern Africa would be focus markets for the refinery’s early-stage petrol exports, with North and South America offering attractive sinks in the future.
S&P Global said the refinery’s gasoline exports have “spiked to roughly 90,000 bpd in June, reaching diverse markets including Oman, Singapore, and Malaysia.” However, it was said that a string of production outages and maintenance on the site’s main gasoline unit, the residue fluid catalytic cracker, crimped flows, keeping volumes minimal.
It was noted that as the refinery exports petrol, it is obliged under the naira-for-crude deal to supply fixed volumes of its oil products to the domestic market.
Sources have noted that as a major global importer, the US has already emerged as a prominent export market for products like jet fuel, and provides a good fit for Dangote’s fuel quality specifications. The US was said to have imported about 630,000 bpd of petrol in the second quarter of 2025, of which the Netherlands supplied around 24 per cent, Canada supplied roughly 17 per cent and India supplied 11 per cent, according to Commodity At Sea data.
Speaking at the Global Commodity Insights Conference on West African Refined Fuel Markets hosted by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority in partnership with S&P Global Insights in July, Dangote requested that petrol, diesel, and other refined petroleum products be added to the items banned by the ‘Nigeria First’ policy.
According to him, the importation of fuel into Nigeria was killing local refining and discouraging further investments in the sector and even the economy. To remain viable, he urged governments across Africa to take deliberate steps, as the United States, Canada, and the European Union have done, to protect domestic producers from what he called unfair competition.
Dangote said that the ‘Nigeria First’ policy announced by Tinubu should apply to the petroleum products sector. “The Nigeria First policy announced by His Excellency, President Bola Tinubu, should apply to the petroleum product sector and all other sectors,” he stated.
He argued that local refiners were finding it difficult to sell their products because of what he called dumping. The billionaire businessman alleged that importers were dumping in Nigeria toxic fuel that would never be allowed in Europe.
“And to make matters worse, we are now facing increased dumping of cheap, often toxic petroleum products, some of which are blended to substandard levels that would never be allowed in Europe or North America,” he said.
Dangote mentioned that some of the importers bring into Nigeria, fuel or crude oil subsidised in Russia. This, he said, affects local pricing, forcing refiners to drop prices below their costs.
“Due to the price caps on the Russian petroleum products, discounted petroleum products produced in Russia or with discounted Russian crude find their way to Africa, severely undercutting our local production, which is based on full crude pricing. This has created an uneven playing field in most African countries. Petrol and diesel are sold for about a dollar net of taxes.
“In Nigeria, due to this unfair competition, this price is just about 60 cents, even cheaper than in Saudi Arabia, which produces and refines its own oil. This is due to the fact that we are having too much dumping. To remain viable, we urge the governments across Africa to take deliberate steps, as the United States, Canada, and the European Union have done, to protect domestic producers from unfair competition,” he stated.
To prove that his $20bn refinery can satisfy local fuel needs, Dangote disclosed that Nigeria has become a net exporter of petroleum products, having exported approximately 1.35 billion litres of petrol to other countries. According to Dangote, between June and July 2025, the refinery exported up to 1 million tonnes of petrol, which is approximately 1.35 billion litres when converted.(Punch)
