The Dangote Petroleum Refinery says it has reached its full designed capacity of 650,000 barrels of crude oil per day (bpd), a benchmark the company describes as historic and unprecedented for a single-train refinery of that scale.
In a statement issued Wednesday, the refinery said the milestone followed optimization of its Crude Distillation Unit (CDU) and Motor Spirit (MS) production block, stabilizing steady-state operations at what is Africa’s largest oil refining complex.
The company has begun an intensive 72-hour performance test programme in collaboration with its technology licensor, UOP, to validate efficiency and confirm that operational parameters meet global benchmarks.
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Chief Executive Officer David Bird said the integration and stabilization of the CDU and MS Block demonstrate the refinery’s engineering strength and operational resilience.
“Our teams have demonstrated exceptional precision and expertise in stabilizing both the CDU and MS Block, and we are pleased to see them functioning at optimal efficiency. This performance testing phase enables us to validate the entire plant under real operating conditions. We are confident that the refinery remains firmly on track to deliver consistent, world-class output,” Bird said.
He added that the CDU and MS Block — comprising the naphtha hydrotreater, isomerization unit, and reformer — are operating steadily at the full nameplate capacity of 650,000 bpd. Phase 2 testing of the remaining processing units is scheduled to commence next week.
Performance test runs of this nature are standard in large-scale refining projects. They involve stress-testing throughput rates, monitoring product yields, assessing energy efficiency ratios, and verifying emissions and safety parameters under continuous load.
Achieving sustained operation at nameplate capacity is distinct from intermittent peak runs. It signals that feedstock flows, heat integration, pressure systems, and product recovery units are synchronized under full operational strain.
The refinery said it supplied between 45 million and 50 million liters of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) daily during the recent festive season. With the CDU and MS Block fully optimized, it now has the capacity to deliver up to 75 million liters of PMS daily to the domestic market if required.
Nigeria has historically imported more than 80 percent of its refined petroleum products due to limited and underperforming domestic refining capacity. The new throughput levels significantly alter that supply equation.
At full operation, the refinery’s output extends beyond PMS to include diesel, aviation fuel, LPG, and petrochemical feedstocks. The facility’s configuration is designed to maximize high-value light products while minimizing low-margin residual fuel oil.
Macroeconomic Significance
Analysts estimate that full and sustained operation of the 650,000 bpd facility could save Nigeria up to $10 billion annually in foreign exchange previously spent on fuel imports. Reduced import dependency may ease pressure on the naira, improve balance-of-payments stability, and moderate inflationary pressures linked to fuel pricing.
Fuel importation has been a major structural drain on Nigeria’s foreign reserves. By refining crude domestically, the country captures greater value across the hydrocarbon chain, from crude extraction to finished product distribution.
The refinery’s operations are also expected to generate thousands of direct and indirect jobs across logistics, engineering, distribution, and petrochemical manufacturing.
From a regional standpoint, surplus output could position Nigeria as a net exporter of refined petroleum products within West and Central Africa, strengthening energy security across the sub-region.
Industrial and Downstream Impact
Beyond fuels, the refinery complex is designed to support petrochemical integration. Expansion plans include production of linear alkylbenzene, base oils, and increased polypropylene capacity.
In October 2025, industrialist Aliko Dangote announced plans to scale the facility from 650,000 bpd to 1.4 million bpd. If completed, that expansion would surpass the 1.36 million bpd capacity of the Jamnagar Refinery in India, currently regarded as the largest refinery complex globally.
The proposed expansion would also raise annual polypropylene output from one million metric tons to 1.5 million metric tons, supporting plastics manufacturing and industrial production.
Such vertical integration aligns with Nigeria’s broader industrialization strategy, which seeks to reduce reliance on imported refined products and manufactured petrochemical derivatives.
The refinery sits on a 6,180-acre (2,500-hectare) site within the Lekki Free Trade Zone in Lagos. It is supplied by an approximately 1,100-kilometre subsea pipeline network designed to ensure steady crude feedstock delivery.
The facility incorporates advanced residue upgrading units, Sulphur recovery systems, and emissions control technologies aimed at meeting Euro V fuel standards.
Its single-train configuration — as opposed to multiple parallel refining trains — makes the achievement of full nameplate capacity technically significant. Scaling a single integrated unit to 650,000 bpd requires highly coordinated engineering design and process stability.
If operations remain stable and expansion plans proceed as outlined, the Dangote Petroleum Refinery could fundamentally reshape Nigeria’s downstream sector, shift regional trade flows, and anchor broader industrial growth tied to hydrocarbons.
Reaching full nameplate throughput positions the refinery at the center of Nigeria’s most consequential energy transition in decades. The next phase will test whether full-capacity operations can be maintained over extended periods, how efficiently products are distributed nationwide, and how pricing dynamics evolve in a market long shaped by subsidy regimes and import dependency.