Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals is considering restricting sales of Premium Motor Spirit to major marketers that continue importing petrol into Nigeria, according to people familiar with the matter, a move that would mark one of the sharpest interventions yet in the country’s shifting fuel supply chain.
The measure, which could take effect as early as this week, remains subject to further consultations and could still be revised, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing internal deliberations.
The refinery’s concerns centre on market transparency and the integrity of products carrying its brand, rather than on import activity itself.
Read also: Dangote Refinery threatens petrol exports as imports hit 43%
At issue, the people said, is a practice in which some marketers blend substandard imported petrol with fuel purchased from Dangote before distributing the mixture to retail stations.
That leaves the refinery unable to guarantee the quality of fuel that consumers associate with its name, even when it never touched the blended batch.
“It is difficult to understand why we would invest heavily in producing high-quality petroleum products for Nigerians, only for those products to be mixed with imported products of uncertain quality and the resulting product to be associated with the refinery,” one person familiar with the refinery’s position said.
The refinery has also flagged what it considers a gap in Nigeria’s regulatory infrastructure: the absence of a standard laboratory operated by the industry regulator capable of independently verifying and certifying the specifications of imported fuel before it reaches the market.
The dispute unfolds against the backdrop of a broader realignment in Nigeria’s downstream petroleum sector, which has relied on imports for decades to meet domestic demand.
Read also: Dangote Refinery raises petrol price again to N1,200/litre
That dependence is now being challenged by the scale of Dangote’s operations. The refinery, with a capacity of 700,000 barrels a day, has become a significant supplier of refined products to both Nigerian and international buyers, shipping fuel that meets globally recognised specifications.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration has pointed to the refinery as a key driver behind a surge in Nigeria’s seaborne petroleum product exports, which averaged 561,000 barrels a day in the second quarter of 2026, up from an annual average of just 79,000 barrels a day in 2023.
The refinery’s jet fuel has found particular traction overseas. Dangote has held its position as Europe’s largest external supplier of jet fuel for several consecutive months, according to trade data, displacing volumes traditionally sourced from the United States and the Middle East.
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