Nigeria’s largest oil refinery, Dangote Refinery, supplied less petrol than its projected daily target in January 2026, but still emerged as the country’s biggest source of fuel during the month.

Industry data released by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority shows that the 650,000-barrel-per-day Lekki-based facility delivered an average of 40.1 million litres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) to the domestic market each day. This was below the refinery’s 50 million litres-per-day benchmark, leaving a gap of about 9.9 million litres.

Despite missing its internal supply goal, the refinery achieved a notable milestone by overtaking imported petrol for the first time in more than a year.

According to the regulator’s January industry report, locally refined fuel from Dangote accounted for roughly 61.8 percent of Nigeria’s petrol supply. By comparison, imported products averaged 24.8 million litres per day, representing just over 38 percent of total supply.

The NMDPRA report also indicated that Nigeria’s overall petrol availability averaged 64.9 million litres per day in January, comfortably above estimated national consumption of 60.2 million litres daily.

The figures suggest that while the Dangote Refinery is still ramping up operations and has yet to reach its full domestic supply target, it is already playing a dominant role in reducing Nigeria’s dependence on imported fuel.