The Dangote Petroleum Refinery, valued at $20 billion and situated in Lekki, Lagos, has turned to importing more crude oil to meet its production targets as the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) struggles to supply sufficient quantities.

Currently producing 500,000 barrels per day (bpd), the refinery aims to ramp up production to 650,000bpd by mid-2025. However, sources say the NNPC, which is mandated to provide 350,000bpd from the 450,000bpd allocated for Nigeria’s local consumption, has fallen short of meeting the refinery's daily feedstock requirements.

“We’re currently at 500,000bpd and aim to reach 650,000bpd by midyear,” an official at the refinery told The PUNCH. “Given the situation, it’s normal to source crude oil from wherever it is available.”

Despite President Bola Tinubu’s directive last year for the NNPC to supply crude oil to local refineries under a naira-for-crude arrangement, the Dangote Refinery is ramping up crude imports. In October 2024, the government began selling crude to the refinery in naira, limiting the arrangement to petrol-producing facilities.

With the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries expected to come online soon, the naira-for-crude program may expand to include more refineries. However, the Dangote Refinery requires 550,000 barrels of Nigerian crude daily—17.05 million barrels monthly—to meet its refining demands, according to projections from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission.

To address supply challenges, the refinery is constructing eight additional storage tanks, which will increase its crude storage capacity by 41.67% to 3.4 billion liters. Officials confirmed the expansion is necessary to accommodate imported crude as local supply remains inconsistent.

“Importing crude from other countries instead of relying solely on local supply means that our crude stockpiles need to be higher,” Devakumar Edwin, Vice President of Oil and Gas at Dangote Industries, said in a recent statement.

In May 2024, the refinery issued a term tender to purchase two million barrels of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) Midland crude monthly for 12 months, totaling 24 million barrels annually.

This strategic shift underscores the challenges in Nigeria’s crude oil supply chain, even as the Dangote Refinery seeks to cement its role as a major player in the global refining sector.