By The Dangote Petroleum Refinery has filed a suit before the Federal High Court in Lagos challenging the issuance of petrol import licences to several oil marketers and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, arguing that the approvals undermine domestic refining capacity in Nigeria.
The refinery is seeking an order of the court to set aside import permits recently granted by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority to fuel marketers, insisting that petrol importation should only be permitted when local production cannot meet national demand.
The dispute followed the regulator’s approval of import licences to six companies, NIPCO, AA Rano, Matrix, Shafa, Pinnacle, and Bono to import a combined 720,000 metric tonnes of Premium Motor Spirit(Petrol).
An official of the NMDPRA confirmed to The Punch that the approvals were issued to support fuel availability across the country amid concerns over supply distribution.
However, the Dangote refinery argued in its court filings that the approvals were unnecessary, maintaining that the facility currently supplies more than 90 per cent of Nigeria’s daily petrol consumption requirement.
The legal action marks a renewed confrontation between the refinery and fuel importers after a similar suit filed in 2025 was withdrawn following the intervention of the Federal Government.
According to The Punch, President of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has repeatedly maintained that continued fuel importation is unnecessary given the refinery’s production capacity.
“The refinery has been tested. We have now processed even crude at 661,000 barrels a day. So we have demonstrated that capability,” Dangote said during a recent interview with Norwegian investment executive Nicolai Tangen.
Dangote also disclosed that the refinery sources more than half of its crude supply from Nigeria, while additional volumes are imported from Angola, Libya, and the United States.
According to him, the company currently purchases about 21 cargoes of crude monthly and plans to expand operations significantly over the next 30 months.
“We will be at 1.4 million barrels per day, which is huge,” he said.
The billionaire industrialist further alleged that some influential figures benefiting from the former fuel subsidy regime were resisting the refinery’s emergence.
“The Mafia are the people who are actually benefiting because Nigeria were giving out almost $10bn every year as a subsidy,” Dangote said.
