Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals has accused the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) of releasing figures that do not accurately reflect the actual production at its Lekki-based refinery, insisting that the regulator’s reports present a distorted view of operations.
The President/Chief Executive Officer of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, made the remarks during a media briefing on challenges in Nigeria’s downstream oil and gas sector on Sunday, December 14, 2025, at Dangote Refinery at Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos.
Dangote said the figures often cited by the regulator only account for products evacuated from the facility, not what has been refined and held in stock.
“So, the issue you’re talking about, the discrepancy that we have. You know, the regulator is very smart. Farouk [Ahmed CEO of NMDPRA] is very smart. What he’s doing is only telling Nigerians what is being taken out of the refinery. So, what has been taken out of the refinery is certainly different from what the refinery has produced,” he said.
In its November production report, NMDPRA said the Dangote Refinery supplied an average of 18.03 million litres of PMS daily, below its planned refining capacity of 35 million litres per day.
Dangote explained that the refinery’s production capacity and stock levels cannot be judged solely by the volume of products released into the market, noting that market realities sometimes make it impractical to immediately evacuate all refined products.
Dangote invites NMDPRA to refinery for verification
According to him, persistent public narratives suggesting underperformance or low production compelled the company to invite the regulator to independently verify its operations.
Nairametrics earlier reported that the refinery, in a November letter signed by its Chief Executive Officer, David Bird, requested NMDPRA’s support to host officials onsite from December 1 to validate and publicly publish daily production and stock volumes.
“Now, you come every day, check our stock, which we don’t want to share before because people can take a position on that, you know, stocks. That’s how the market works. But we don’t even mind losing money. Come and take our stock every day, publish what we have produced and what we have in stock. So that Nigerians can be assured that there’s more than enough to supply the domestic market,” Dangote added.
Dangote stressed that refining operations must be guided by market demand and logistics, not by the need to make symbolic gestures.
He further contrasted Nigeria’s situation with that of other African countries still struggling to build refining capacity, noting that many leaders on the continent see local refining as a defining legacy.
What you should know
The Dangote refinery, with an existing capacity of 650,000 bpd, is one of the world’s largest single-train refining facilities.
