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🇳🇬 Nigeria /Economy & Trade

Nigeria exports 55.39m barrels as Dangote battles crude shortage

From The Punch · (8h ago) English Critical tone

Summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

TLDR

  • Nigeria exported 55.39 million barrels of crude oil in January and February 2026, despite the Dangote refinery facing a shortage of domestic feedstock.
  • The Dangote refinery, with a capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, has struggled to secure sufficient crude from local sources, forcing it to import oil internationally.
  • This situation arises as the country's flagship refinery grapples with supply constraints under the naira-for-crude arrangement, while a significant portion of produced crude continues to be exported.

The Punch highlights a critical paradox in Nigeria's oil sector: the nation is exporting substantial volumes of crude oil while its own state-of-the-art Dangote refinery struggles with inadequate domestic supply. In the first two months of 2026, Nigeria exported over 55 million barrels, yet the 650,000-barrel-per-day Dangote refinery has faced persistent challenges in obtaining the necessary feedstock from local sources. This forces the refinery, a significant investment aimed at boosting domestic refining capacity, to rely on costly international imports.

This scenario raises serious questions about the implementation of the Petroleum Industries Act, which industry sources argue prohibits crude export before meeting local demand. The data reveals a stark disparity: while the Dangote refinery requires approximately 19.77 million barrels monthly to operate at full capacity, it received significantly less from domestic sources between October 2025 and mid-March 2026, with supply performance hovering around 26.9%. This shortfall has hampered the refinery's operations and its ability to contribute to Nigeria's fuel security goals.

Under the Petroleum Industries Act, the export of crude before meeting local demand was clearly prohibited, stressing that the $20bn Lekki-based plant had been grappling with inadequate crude volumes, while the country, through NNPC, continued to export some of its oil.

— Senior management source within the refineryAn unnamed refinery official explaining the conflict between crude export policies and domestic supply needs.

The situation underscores a systemic issue where Nigeria, despite being Africa's largest crude producer, continues to prioritize exports over meeting the needs of its domestic refining infrastructure. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited's recent increase in crude supply to Dangote from five to 10 cargoes is a step, but the underlying problem of feedstock allocation and export strategy needs urgent attention. The Punch's reporting emphasizes the economic and strategic implications of this imbalance, suggesting that Nigeria is missing a crucial opportunity to maximize value from its oil resources by not adequately supporting its own refining capacity.

This translates to a supply performance of about 26.9 per cent, indicating that more than three-quarters of the refinery’s crude needs were not met.

— The PUNCHAnalysis of the crude oil supply shortfall experienced by the Dangote refinery.
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Originally published by The Punch. Summarized and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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