The minister says Nigeria needs more refineries and infrastructure to become a major African fuel hub

Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, on Tuesday, August 11, 2026, urged local and international investors to increase funding for Nigeria’s refining, midstream and downstream sectors, saying the Dangote refinery alone cannot satisfy Africa’s rapidly growing demand for refined petroleum products.

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Lokpobiri made the call in Abuja at the second West Africa Refined Fuel Market Conference, where regulators, refiners, traders, financiers and other energy stakeholders discussed efforts to establish a transparent regional pricing system and strengthen petroleum distribution across West Africa.

The conference was jointly hosted by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, S&P Global Commodity Insights and the West Africa Regulators Forum under the theme, “Funding West Africa Infrastructure & Distribution to Create a Transparent Market for Regional Price Benchmarks.”

The minister described the gathering as an important step in Africa’s pursuit of greater energy sovereignty, arguing that Nigeria now had an opportunity to build on the transformation taking place in its refining industry.

He said the Dangote project had demonstrated the potential of large-scale private investment but warned that even a planned expansion to 1.4 million barrels per day would not be sufficient to supply the entire African continent.

“The Dangote refinery is not enough,” Lokpobiri said, stressing that Nigeria needed several additional investments if it was to move from serving West Africa to becoming a major continental petroleum hub.

The comments come as the Lagos-based refinery has rapidly expanded its regional footprint. The facility reached its stated 650,000 barrels per day capacity earlier this year, while reports have documented growing exports of petrol and other refined products to African markets.

In March, the refinery said traders had sold 12 cargoes totalling 456,000 tonnes of refined petroleum products to markets including Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Tanzania, Ghana and Togo.

The scale of that expansion has already altered Nigeria’s position in the regional fuel market. Reuters reported in April that the refinery was operating at 650,000 barrels per day and had increased gasoline exports to African countries amid disruptions to international fuel supplies.

But Lokpobiri argued that the emerging opportunity required a much broader investment ecosystem.

“It’s the best time for us to attract as many investors as we can. Not just into the upstream, but into the midstream, and then the downstream,” he said.

He urged investors to develop additional refineries, storage facilities, transportation networks and other infrastructure that could enable Nigeria to process more crude locally and distribute products efficiently across Africa.

For Lokpobiri, the objective is also about changing a longstanding pattern in Nigeria’s economy, where raw commodities have historically been exported only for processed products to be imported at greater cost.

He said the progress recorded by the Dangote project should encourage investors to put more capital into domestic processing rather than treating the refinery as the end point of Nigeria’s refining ambitions.

“Africa has a huge market, and I believe that the time has come for Nigeria as the leader of the oil and gas industry in Africa to be a true leader,” he said.

The minister also pointed to Nigeria’s geographical position as an advantage for international investors, arguing that the country was not directly dependent on the Strait of Hormuz for its crude and petroleum product supply routes.

However, greater refining capacity alone will not automatically create energy security.

Olu Verheijen, Special Adviser to the President on Energy, said West Africa had substantial energy resources and demand but remained constrained by fragmented markets and inadequate infrastructure.

“Refining capacity alone, as big as ours is, does not create energy security,” Verheijen said.

She said refined products still needed to be financed, stored, transported and distributed before their economic value could be fully realised.

Verheijen therefore called for investment in pipelines, ports, storage facilities, coastal vessels, trucking networks and trading platforms, alongside common product standards and stronger cooperation among regional regulators.

The need for such infrastructure is becoming more evident as Nigeria’s refining output grows. The refinery has already demonstrated its ability to supply international markets, with Reuters reporting that it increased exports as global fuel supply conditions tightened.

There are also signs that investors are responding to the expansion opportunity.

The Financial Times reported in late July that Dangote had secured $2.5bn in private equity investment to support an expansion from 650,000 barrels per day to 1.4 million barrels per day by 2028.

Yet the expansion also highlights another challenge for Nigeria: securing enough crude for domestic refineries.

The Dangote refinery and other local processors require consistent crude supplies to operate efficiently, while Nigeria must balance domestic refining requirements against crude export commitments.

This makes upstream production growth and reliable domestic crude supply an important part of the government’s wider refining strategy.

Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, Chief Executive of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, said developments across Nigeria’s oil and gas value chain had created an opportunity to deepen regional integration.

She pointed to rising refining capacity, improved gas supply and increased crude production as important developments, but said West African countries needed to stop operating as isolated national markets.

“The West African market must be integrated. We can no longer afford to operate in silos,” Eyesan said.

She called for regulatory and infrastructure systems capable of connecting producers, refiners, traders and consumers throughout the sub-region.

Lokpobiri also stressed the importance of developing a sustainable pricing mechanism that would encourage investment while allowing market forces to influence petroleum product prices.

The issue has become increasingly important as Nigeria moves towards a more deregulated downstream market. Greater domestic production can reduce dependence on imports, but regional exports also expose Nigerian refiners and consumers to international price movements.

The minister recalled how European demand for aviation fuel from the Dangote refinery affected local market conditions, saying the episode demonstrated how international demand could influence domestic prices.

“The Dangote refinery is not enough, and we saw it when European countries were demanding Dangote jet fuel. Certainly, our price for jet fuel went up,” he said.

The challenge for Nigeria, therefore, is no longer simply to build a refinery capable of producing enough fuel for its own population.

It is to create the infrastructure, financing arrangements, crude supply, regulatory certainty and regional market architecture required to turn growing refining capacity into a sustainable continental energy business.

That ambition could give Nigeria a powerful new role in Africa’s petroleum trade, but achieving it will depend on whether investment extends beyond one flagship facility.

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As Lokpobiri put it, the Dangote refinery should be seen as evidence of what is possible rather than evidence that Nigeria has finished building its refining industry.