Dangote refinery drives West Africa refining growth – Report

West Africa is quickly creating right into a regional refining and buying and selling hub, pushed largely by the impression of Nigeria’s 650,000 barrels-per-day Dangote Petroleum Refinery and broader authorities efforts to realize refined product self-sufficiency and broaden export capability, a report by Argus Media has acknowledged.

The report famous that the independently owned refinery has considerably altered each regional and international refined product markets, sharply decreasing West Africa’s dependence on imported fuels and reshaping commerce flows throughout the sub-region.

Since petrol manufacturing started on the Dangote refinery in September 2024, Nigeria, which was beforehand West Africa’s largest gasoline importer, has recorded a steep drop in gasoline imports. In line with Kpler information cited by Argus Media, Nigeria’s web petrol imports fell to a historic low of 40,000 barrels per day in September this yr, down from 332,000 barrels per day a yr earlier.

On the similar time, Nigeria has strengthened its place as a provider of refined merchandise to the area. The report mentioned the nation’s web center distillate exports reached a file 145,000 barrels per day in July, in contrast with 82,000 barrels per day earlier within the yr, including that Nigeria has broadly remained a web exporter of center distillates since Could 2024.

As a consequence of Dangote’s output, Argus famous that West Africa is importing considerably much less petrol and center distillates, together with diesel and jet gasoline. 12 months-to-date information present that petrol imports into the area, stretching from Mauritania to Angola, declined by 1 / 4 to 337,000 barrels per day, whereas jet gasoline imports dropped to 4,000 barrels per day, the bottom stage since Kpler started data in 2016.

Diesel imports into West Africa additionally fell to a five-year low of 162,000 barrels per day.

Argus Media acknowledged that Dangote has “inarguably reworked regional oil product market dynamics”, including that the refinery has remained strong regardless of a number of upkeep intervals and nonetheless has room to seize a bigger share of Nigeria’s home petrol market within the coming yr.

Nonetheless, the report contrasted Dangote’s efficiency with the struggles of Nigeria’s state-owned refining property. It recalled that the Nigerian Nationwide Petroleum Firm Restricted restarted a 60,000 barrels-per-day unit of the 210,000 barrels-per-day Port Harcourt refinery late in 2024, just for it to close once more in Could this yr. Equally, the 125,000 barrels-per-day Warri refinery resumed operations in December 2024 however went offline the next month, highlighting ongoing challenges with rehabilitating long-idle refineries.

Past Nigeria, the report disclosed that different West African nations are additionally increasing refining capability, additional decreasing the area’s reliance on European gasoline merchants. In Angola, the 30,000-barrel-per-day Cabinda refinery has commenced operations, producing primarily diesel and jet gasoline for home use, a improvement anticipated to curb the nation’s center distillate imports.

In Ghana, efforts are ongoing to revive operations on the 45,000-barrel-per-day Tema Oil Refinery, whereas personal refineries proceed to function intermittently. Nonetheless, Argus Media mentioned large-scale new refining tasks throughout the area face lengthy timelines, making present and near-complete refineries in Nigeria and neighbouring nations crucial to West Africa’s ambition to play an even bigger position within the downstream oil market.

The report concluded that the tempo of additional change in 2026 would largely depend upon the efficiency of working refineries, with Dangote remaining central to West Africa’s emergence as a refining and buying and selling hub.