Dangote Petroleum Refinery has reached its full designed capacity of 650,000 barrels of crude oil per day (bpd), marking what the company describes as a historic milestone and making it the first refinery globally to achieve full nameplate capacity in a single train of that scale.
In a statement issued recently, the refinery said the milestone was achieved following the optimisation of its Crude Distillation Unit (CDU) and Motor Spirit (MS) production block, further strengthening steady-state operations at Africa’s largest oil refining facility.
The 650,000 b-pd Dangote Refinery is widely seen as a transformative project for Nigeria’s energy sector. It is designed to significantly reduce, and potentially eliminate, the country’s long-standing reliance on imported refined petroleum products.
By reducing the need to import over 80% of refined products, the refinery is also expected to stabilise fuel supply, reduce price volatility, and end recurring fuel shortages and long queues.
In October 2025, Aliko Dangote announced plans to expand the refinery’s capacity from 650,000 bpd to 1.4 million b-pd.
Once completed, the expanded facility would surpass India’s 1.36 million bpd Jamnagar refinery, currently the largest in the world.