Nigeria cuts down on fuel importation as domestic refining climbs by 57 % in 3 months

Nigeria’s oil and gas space has begun a significant shift from dependence on petrol importation, following an increase in domestic refining capacity, led primarily by the Dangote Petroleum Refinery.

BusinessDay’s analysis of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority’s fact sheet for January, showed that the total daily supply of Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) stood at 64.9 million litres per day. This is a drop from 74.2 million litres recorded in December 2025.

Of the total supply in January, domestic supply led by Dangote Petroleum Refinery delivered an average of 40.1 million litres of Premium Motor Spirit daily.

The report indicated a steady rise in the volume of PMS supplied from domestic market reaching 57.5 percent when compared to the average daily supply of 17.1 million litres per day recorded in October 2025.

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Also, PMS importation by oil marketers and Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) accounted for 25.8 million litres per day in January 2026.

“PMS Supply in January 2026 via domestic refining increased due to improvement in supply from DPRP (32ML/day to 40.1ML/day),” the report stated.

The Dangote refinery’s output increased by 25 percent from the 32 million litres recorded in December 2025. The refinery however fell short of its planned domestic supply of 75 million litres/day.

Also, the report showed that the average domestic supply of Automotive Gas Oil stood at 10.9 million litres per day.

Further details showed that the refinery operated at an average capacity utilisation of 61.27 per cent in January, with performance peaking at 67.69 percent during the month.

On performance of the state owned refineries, the report showed that Port Harcourt Refinery is shut down, although evacuation of diesel produced while the facility was operational averaged 0.376 million litres per day, while both the Warri and Kaduna refineries remain non-operational.

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