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Nigeria does not have enough crude oil to keep Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote's refinery running at full capacity, the country's finance minister said, in a rare public admission that Africa's biggest oil producer cannot feed Africa's biggest refinery.
"We don't have enough to service Dangote. Dangote imports crude," Finance Minister Taiwo Oyedele said on Channels Television's Politics Today program on Oct. 9.
"The reality is that today we do not have up to 700,000 free crude to give anyone, including Dangote," he said, referring to the refinery's daily demand in barrels.
The comments came days before the Dangote refinery's initial public offering closes on Oct. 13, in a share sale that is open to investors in Nigeria and, through approved brokers, in Kenya.
Where Nigeria's oil goes
Oyedele was responding to calls for the government to give the Lekki refinery a "production subsidy" through discounted crude, and to wider calls for fuel subsidies to return.
He said many of those pushing for discounts did not understand how little of Nigeria's oil the government actually controls. Of the roughly 1.8 million barrels a day the country pumps, much belongs to oil companies under production sharing contracts and joint ventures, which he put at about 45% to 55%. More barrels go to cover production costs and royalties before the remaining profit oil is shared.
What is left for the government, he said, had for years been largely consumed by the cost of the fuel subsidy that President Bola Tinubu scrapped in 2023.
He credited Tinubu's naira-for-crude policy, under which state oil company NNPC Ltd. sells crude to local refiners in naira rather than dollars, with bringing stability to the market. But he said the volumes are not yet there.
"We'll get to a point where we'll be able to give Dangote everything he wants," Oyedele said. He added that he hopes Nigeria will eventually refine all its crude at home and export only refined products.
A long-running supply fight
Crude supply has been Dangote's biggest complaint since the $20 billion plant in the Lekki free trade zone outside Lagos began production in 2024. The refinery has bought cargoes from the United States, Brazil and other West African producers because it could not secure enough barrels locally.
The minister's remarks also landed in the middle of a fresh row over fuel prices. A day earlier the government announced a 30-day discount on petrol sold by NNPC Ltd., which opposition politicians called a subsidy through the back door. Pump prices have climbed to about 1,400 naira a litre, about $1.05, from 830 naira before the war in the Middle East.
Dangote, Africa's richest person, has staked much of his fortune on the refinery. He is now taking the model abroad, with a planned 700,000-barrel-a-day plant in Lamu, Kenya, where ground was broken on Sept. 30.
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