October 14,, 2025
Despite the commissioning of the 650,000-barrel-per-day Dangote Refinery, new data has revealed that Nigeria’s reliance on petrol imports has deepened, with imported petrol accounting for 72.64 per cent of total national consumption in the last nine months.
African countries in bid to rival Dangote Refinery and Nigeria’s ambitious plan to become the continent’s refining hub, are currently racing to build new refineries or complete the overhaul of existing facilities.
According to recent announcements, Ethiopia, Senegal, Angola, Mozambique, Djibouti, Cameroon, Ghana, South Africa and Uganda are all planning the return of their refineries or building new plants that could collectively add over one million barrels per day of refining capacity, potentially rivaling Nigeria’s Dangote and NNPC refineries.
READ MORE; NNPCL Takes Stock After PENGASSAN Strike As Oil Output Dropped By 16%.
Figures from the Federation Account Allocation Committee, FAAC, showed that, of the 12.5 billion litres of petrol the country consumed between October 2024 and July 2025, about 9.08 billion litres were imported, while 3.5 billion litres came from domestic supply, mainly the Dangote Refinery.
The data indicated that hopes of achieving energy self-sufficiency through local refining remain distant.
In October 2024, Nigeria imported 40.43 million litres per day, translating to 1.253 billion litres that month, while Dangote Refinery supplied only 7.09 million litres daily, representing 14.9 per cent of the total. Similar patterns persisted in the subsequent months, though local supply briefly surged early in 2025 before sliding again amid operational disruptions.
READ MORE; Suspension Of Petrol Sales In Naira: IPMAN Announces Fuel Price Hike.
By January 2025, import dependence had dropped to 56.3 per cent, with Dangote supplying 592.1 million litres, its best performance so far. February and March maintained similar trends, with local supply hovering near 45 per cent.
However, production began to falter from May 2025, when domestic supply fell sharply to 472 million litres, leaving importers to cover nearly 72 per cent of national demand.
By July, Dangote’s contribution stood at just 31.5 per cent, following a labour dispute that halted operations temporarily.
READ MORE; Naira-For-Crude Deal: FEC Orders Full Implementation
Despite being Africa’s largest oil producer, the country still struggles to supply its own refineries with adequate feedstock.
Dangote Refinery, for example, imported nearly 20 per cent of its crude from the United States in 2024, underscoring the challenge of securing local crude under Nigeria’s current production constraints.
Despite the region’s push, stakeholders have insisted that unless crude availability and pipeline security are fixed, even the best refineries can’t solve the import problem.
