The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority has approved a total of 77 refinery licenses within the past year in a decisive move to ramp up Nigeria’s capacity to refine its own crude oil and reduce dependency on imports.
This announcement came during the sixth edition of the Meet-the-Press series in Abuja, where the Chief Executive Officer of the Authority, Farouk Ahmed, confirmed that 47 Licenses to establish and 30 Licenses to construct have been issued between April 2024 and April 2025. These combined approvals reflect a total refining potential of close to 3 million barrels per day.
According to Ahmed, the Licenses to establish account for 1.75 million barrels per day, while the Licenses to construct are for 1.23 million barrels per day. However, only four refineries currently have Licenses to operate, producing a steady output of 27,000 barrels per day.
Five of the approved construction projects are either already under construction or at the commissioning stage. This includes major facilities like the Dangote Refinery, with a planned capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, AIPCC Energy at 30,000 barrels per day, and Waltersmith’s new train projected at 5,000 barrels per day.
Ahmed shared that ten operational refineries—six privately owned and four public—are now contributing a combined output of 1.12 million barrels per day. The private sector leads with 679,500 barrels per day. Dangote’s facility is the largest contributor at 650,000 barrels per day, followed by Aradel with 11,000, OPAC with 10,000, Waltersmith at 5,000, Duport Midstream with 2,500, and Edo Refining and Petrochemicals Company Limited at 1,000 barrels per day.
On the public side, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited manages four refineries with a combined output of 445,000 barrels per day. These include the Port Harcourt plants (150,000 and 60,000 barrels per day, respectively), Warri Refinery at 125,000, and Kaduna Refinery with a capacity of 110,000 barrels per day.
Ahmed emphasized that these developments are not only strategic in reducing Nigeria’s dependence on imported refined products but are also part of a broader effort to boost economic growth, create jobs, and strengthen national energy security. He also mentioned that newly approved modular refineries in Edo, Delta, and Abia states will soon add another 140,000 barrels per day to the national refining capacity once they come onstream.
