Nigeria’s Dangote plans expansion to rival world’s biggest refinery

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Nigeria’s Dangote plans expansion to rival world’s biggest refinery

10:38 CAT | 27 Oct 2025

Aliko Dangote.[Image: Bloomberg]

Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote plans to more than double the capacity of his oil refinery, creating a facility that will be among the largest in the world.

Dangote will expand the refinery’s capacity to 1.4 million barrels a day from 650 000 barrels a day, he said at a briefing in Lagos on Sunday. The expansion is a reflection of his confidence in the Nigerian economy as well as a response to rising regional demand, the refinery’s billionaire owner said, adding that he has signed a deal with the technology licensee for the plant to start the project.

Once complete, the refinery will be as big as Reliance Industries Ltd.’s facility controlled by fellow billionaire Mukesh Ambani.

Dangote plans to initially raise the capacity of the refinery to 700 000 barrels a day by next year before doubling that output over three years. “We will also expand our polypropylene production from 900 000 metric tons to 2.4mm metric tons per annum,” Dangote said.

Funding for the expansion will come from cash flows, part of the proceeds from an initial public offering sometime next year that will list at least 10% of the plant’s shares, and other sources, Dangote said.

The Dangote Refinery, already the world’s biggest single-train crude processor, started operations in January of 2024 and has since helped turn Nigeria from a net importer of refined products into a net exporter. It currently meets about 35% to 50% of the nation’s gasoline needs and has also exported petroleum products to markets as far as the US.

Still, the plant has struggled with accessing crude supply from the domestic market, while the plant’s residue fluidized catalytic cracking unit has had to be shut down at least three times for repairs since the refinery started operations, causing supply disruptions.

“What we are trying to do is replicate another line,” Dangote said. “This will give us better security, so that even if you going to shut down the refinery for 40 days, at least 50% of the refinery will still work.”

Dangote is banking on an expansion of Nigeria’s crude output to guarantee feedstock for his expanded refinery when complete, projecting that domestic production could easily expand to 2.4 million barrels per day by the time he finishes his new plant.

The output from the plant will go to African and other markets. Dangote said he has signed a deal with the Namibian government for the establishment of a tank farm that will supply refined products to Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia and South Africa.

“In Africa, demand (for petroleum products) is going up every single day,” Dangote said. “And that is why, these are the markets we want to serve.”

Source: Bloomberg