Dangote Now Exports More Fuel Than It Sells in Nigeria

The Dangote Petroleum Refinery sent more fuel abroad in September than it supplied to Nigeria. That month 2026 the Lekki refinery exported a combined 54.63 million litres a day of petrol, diesel and aviation fuel, against 39.98 million litres a day delivered to the domestic market, according to the September fact sheet of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), as analysed by Nairametrics.

In August it was the other way round: domestic deliveries of 51.31 million litres a day were 11.53 million litres ahead of exports of 39.78 million. In September exports jumped 37.3% while domestic receipts fell 22.1%, leaving exports 14.65 million litres a day ahead. Exports made up 57.7% of everything the refinery shipped out, up from 43.7%.

Product by product

The refinery ran harder than ever. NMDPRA puts average capacity use at 105.98% of its 650,000 barrels a day design, up from 105.21% in August, with combined output of the three fuels up 15.7% to 97.67 million litres a day. The regulator says it received 618,000 barrels a day of crude and drew the rest from inventory.

• Petrol: output rose 12.6% to 47.22 million litres a day. Exports rose 59% to 15.47 million litres, domestic deliveries fell 20.6% to 28.5 million litres, and 3.25 million litres a day went into storage.
• Diesel: output rose 35% to 24.32 million litres a day. Exports nearly doubled to 15.91 million litres, almost twice the 8.14 million litres delivered at home.
• Aviation fuel: 23.25 million litres a day of the 26.13 million produced was exported, 87% of what left the refinery.

Petrol and diesel together still went mostly to Nigeria, 36.64 million litres a day at home against 31.38 million abroad, but the gap shrank from 29.76 million litres in August to 5.26 million, ThisDay reports. Tribune reported the same petrol and diesel figures from the fact sheet and noted that the state refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna produced nothing in the period.

Related · StartupsDangote Refinery IPO Draws 1.55 Million Online InvestorsAbout 1.55 million people applied online for Dangote Refinery shares, Nairametrics reports, and orders reached about three times the ₦2.15 trillion target.

Short stocks at home

The shift came as Nigeria's own supply tightened. National petrol receipts fell 23.4% to 38.7 million litres a day and imports fell 30.1% to 10.2 million litres, which NMDPRA put down to approved import permit volumes running out. Consumption, measured by volumes trucked out of depots, was 44.4 million litres a day, so Dangote alone produced more petrol than the country used. Even so, petrol stock cover fell to 23.9 days, below the regulator's 30-day benchmark.

Diesel was tighter still: national receipts fell 40% to 8.7 million litres a day, the lowest in the 13 months covered, against consumption of 14.5 million litres. The regulator blamed low imports and low domestic evacuation amid high prices. Neither the fact sheet nor the reports explain why the refinery sent more product abroad, and Dangote has not commented on the September figures.

The figures land as the refinery courts Nigerian retail investors in its share sale, which drew 1.55 million online subscribers.