The Dangote Group has filed a lawsuit at Nigeria’s High Court challenging the country’s continued approval of imported fuel.
The company, which operates Africa’s largest refinery with a capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, argues that it can fully meet Nigeria’s local fuel demand.
According to Business Insider Africa, it is calling for tighter restrictions on imported petroleum products and opposes the government’s decision to keep issuing import permits to fuel marketers.
Devakumar Edwin, Dangote’s vice president for oil and gas, said the legal action was triggered by the downstream regulator’s moves to reopen the market to increased imports despite the refinery posting record production levels.
The suit seeks an interpretation of the Petroleum Industry Act to secure protections for locally refined fuel.
The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority recently approved six firms to import 720,000 metric tons of gasoline in the second quarter of the year, easing previous restrictions. A spokesperson for the regulator declined to comment, stating the matter was now before the attorney general.
Dangote officials have also argued that low-quality, high-sulfur imported fuel undermines the refinery’s competitiveness, maintaining that their own products meet strict Euro 5 standards.
"The only reason we could be undercut is through inferior or sanctioned products," Dangote Refining CEO David Bird said in an interview. "We are more than happy to compete on a level playing field from a product quality perspective."
Bird added that the facility has reached gasoline production of up to 96 million litres daily, with the potential to increase output to 100 million litres per day.
According to figures from the regulator, the refinery produced 53.6 million litres of gasoline daily in April, which is equivalent to about 340,000 barrels per day.
This exceeds Nigeria's estimated local demand of about 320,000 barrels per day.
Despite these high production levels, limited storage infrastructure and market dynamics mean that actual domestic supply stood at about 255,000 barrels per day, while gasoline imports still accounted for roughly 20,000 barrels per day.
Regulatory data showed the refinery reached full design capacity for the first time in February.