Lagos, Nigeria – Thursday, July 25, 2025
In a surprising development that could influence regional fuel trade patterns, marketers and importers have reported that refined petroleum products are currently more expensive to load from Nigeria’s Dangote Refinery than from the Lomé terminal in Togo.
Despite expectations that the 650,000-barrel-per-day Dangote Refinery — Africa’s largest — would offer competitive pricing due to its scale and strategic location, market insiders say that loading refined products such as diesel and aviation fuel from the facility has proven costlier than sourcing the same products from Lomé.
Industry analysts attribute this to several factors. Firstly, operational costs at the newly commissioned refinery remain high as it ramps up production and navigates early-stage logistics. Secondly, the absence of a fully deregulated downstream market in Nigeria has led to pricing inconsistencies, making it harder for domestic suppliers to compete with more established West African terminals like Lomé, which benefit from longer-term storage agreements, stable export pipelines, and efficient port facilities.
“For now, loading from Lomé remains the cheaper and faster option,” said a Lagos-based fuel importer who requested anonymity. “Until Dangote fully scales and resolves some logistics bottlenecks, we’ll continue to see this price gap.”
Observers believe that the situation may change as the Dangote Refinery achieves steady-state operations and as Nigeria strengthens its regulatory framework. However, for now, price-sensitive buyers are looking elsewhere — an outcome that could limit the refinery’s early impact on domestic fuel prices and regional supply chains.
As energy markets across West Africa evolve, stakeholders are calling for transparent pricing models and infrastructure improvements to ensure that refineries like Dangote’s can deliver on their promise of making Nigeria a net exporter of refined products.
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