Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals has accused the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) of releasing figures that don’t precisely replicate the precise manufacturing at its Lekki-based refinery, insisting that the regulator’s stories current a distorted view of operations.
The President/Chief Government Officer of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, made the remarks throughout a media briefing on challenges in Nigeria’s downstream oil and fuel sector on Sunday, December 14, 2025, at Dangote Refinery at Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos.
Dangote mentioned the figures typically cited by the regulator solely account for merchandise evacuated from the power, not what has been refined and held in inventory.
“So, the problem you’re speaking about, the discrepancy that now we have. You realize, the regulator may be very sensible. Farouk [Ahmed CEO of NMDPRA] may be very sensible. What he’s doing is barely telling Nigerians what’s being taken out of the refinery. So, what has been taken out of the refinery is actually totally different from what the refinery has produced,” he mentioned.
In its November manufacturing report, NMDPRA mentioned the Dangote Refinery provided a median of 18.03 million litres of PMS each day, beneath its deliberate refining capability of 35 million litres per day.
Dangote defined that the refinery’s manufacturing capability and inventory ranges can’t be judged solely by the quantity of merchandise launched into the market, noting that market realities generally make it impractical to instantly evacuate all refined merchandise.
Dangote invitations NMDPRA to refinery for verification
In response to him, persistent public narratives suggesting underperformance or low manufacturing compelled the corporate to ask the regulator to independently confirm its operations.
Nairametrics earlier reported that the refinery, in a November letter signed by its Chief Government Officer, David Fowl, requested NMDPRA’s assist to host officers onsite from December 1 to validate and publicly publish each day manufacturing and inventory volumes.
“Now, you come every single day, test our inventory, which we don’t wish to share earlier than as a result of folks can take a place on that, you recognize, shares. That’s how the market works. However we don’t even thoughts shedding cash. Come and take our inventory every single day, publish what now we have produced and what now we have in inventory. In order that Nigerians could be assured that there’s greater than sufficient to provide the home market,” Dangote added.
Dangote harassed that refining operations have to be guided by market demand and logistics, not by the necessity to make symbolic gestures.
He additional contrasted Nigeria’s state of affairs with that of different African nations nonetheless struggling to construct refining capability, noting that many leaders on the continent see native refining as a defining legacy.
What it’s best to know
In November, Dangote Industries signed a significant settlement with Honeywell to offer superior refinery providers and know-how that may allow the growth of its refining capability to 1.4 million barrels per day (bpd) by 2028.
The Dangote refinery, with an present capability of 650,000 bpd, is among the world’s largest single-train refining services.