Importation of toxic fuel deals a major blow to Dangote's fight for market share
Marketers in Nigeria have resumed large-scale imports of refined petroleum products due to domestic refining limitations, including underutilization of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery.
In May and June 2025, imports constituted 71.38% of the nation's petrol consumption, compared to 28.62% sourced from local production.
This import preference occurs amid a severe foreign exchange crisis and undermines the economic rationale for local refinery development.
According to fuel supply estimates given to the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) for June 2025, imports accounted for 71.38% of the country's daily petrol consumption in May and June.
Only 28.62% of the fuel consumed during this period came from Dangote's well-known plant.
This significant preference for imports occurs at a time when Nigeria is experiencing a severe foreign exchange crisis.
Marketers, who were meant to lessen the country's reliance on imports by supporting domestic refining, are instead spending precious FX to find refined goods overseas.
This contradicts one of the primary economic reasons for establishing local refineries: to preserve currency and improve energy security.
Prior to this report becoming public, Aliko Dangote, Africa's richest man and head of the Dangote Group, had urged the federal government late in July to ban the import of petrol, diesel, and other refined petroleum products.
According to Dangote, unrestricted fuel dumping undermines local initiatives.
He said that imports are flooding the market with poor and lower-cost fuel, making it harder for local manufacturers to compete.
This, he claims, is putting a financial squeeze on domestic refineries constructed to global standards and operating under tougher quality and cost constraints.
'The Nigeria First policy announced by His Excellency, President Bola Tinubu, should apply to the petroleum product sector and all other sectors,' the Nigerian billionaire stated.
'And to make matters worse, we are now facing increased dumping of cheap, often toxic petroleum products, some of which are blended to substandard levels that would never be allowed in Europe or North America,' he added.
The strain between the $20 billion refinery and marketers is not only policy-related; it is also manifesting at the pump.
A price war recently broke out between the Dangote-linked refinery and independent fuel importers.
Filling stations in states such as Lagos and Ogun States opted to offer petrol for less than ₦860 per litre, undercutting Dangote-affiliated marketers like MRS and Heyden, who charge between ₦865 and ₦875 per litre.
At the same time, importers like Aiteo and Menj reduced their depot rates to N815 per litre, which is lower than the N820 offered by the Dangote refinery.
Earlier in Juy, the Dangote Petroleum Refinery initiated the price competition by trimming its gantry price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) from N880 to N840 per litre.
Nigeria's Petrol import in the last 2 months
According to the report, as seen in the Punch, obtained by one of the publication's correspondents, of the FAAC document, 2.32 billion litres of petrol were imported in May and June, with just 927 million litres coming from local refineries.
A comparison of petroleum product supply and distribution revealed that in June, PMS imports totaled 34.10 million litres per day, or 1.023 billion litres, while local production contributed just 15.2 million litres per day, or 455,188,512 litres throughout the time.
In May, imported PMS averaged 43.22 million litres per day, accumulating 1.297 billion, while local refining accounted for 15.74 million litres, totaling 472.07 million each month.
Further examination revealed that 455.2 million litres of PMS were trucked out of refineries, while depots accounted for 985.6 million litres, marking an 18.55 percent rise over the 1.22 billion litres reported in May.
In June, the average daily distribution was 48 million liters, up from 54 million liters in May, with the number of vehicles increasing from around 37,000 to 32,000 in June.
It also revealed a monthly supply variation of -16.42% between May and June, falling from 1.77 billion litres in May to 1.48 billion litres in June.
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