By Udeme Akpan, Energy Editor
The Chief Executive Officer of Dangote Petroleum Refinery, David Bird, said the company is committed to achieving a 1.4 million barrel per day (bpd) expansion of the plant within three years. The Dangote Refinery, located in the Lekki Free Trade Zone near Lagos, is already the largest single-train refinery in the world, with a nameplate capacity of 650,000 barrels a day.
However, he said the expansion plan, targeted for 2026, involves replicating its current configuration, adding that it would also fast-track procurement and construction by relying on proven specifications rather than redesigning systems.
Bird said: “Once you let engineers go back into an expansion, they often start to tinker, and that sends you back into months or years of detailed engineering. The idea here is replication. We will not need to reengineer, so we can get straight into ordering long-lead items and commencing construction.”
According to him, the planned expansion to 1.4 million barrels a day would cement its position as one of the world’s biggest refining complexes and significantly reshape fuel flows in Africa.
He said: “If you look at the landscape, you can see that the land has already been proclaimed and raised by more than a meter compared with where it was in the past. All of that pre-investment has been done. None of the normal site-preparation timelines really apply here. We are firmly of the belief that we can bring this expansion online within three years.”
Speaking during a press conference yesterday, Bird, who was appointed in August 2025, said in the second half of 2025, the plant supplied about 50 million liters of petrol per day.
He said: “Now, we’re really in a period of stabilization. What I’m incredibly proud of in the second half of 2025, whilst we are still ramping up capacity of our conversion units and our downstream units, we were still able to deliver 50 million liters a day, more frankly than 52 million liters on some occasions.
“We’ve done that because Dangote Refinery is not just a traditional refinery. What we’re blessed with is the foresight of Alhaji Aliko Dangote to invest in the infrastructure where we can truly now leverage this site as a complete merchant refining blending trading platform.
“What do I mean by that? I mean 100% of our feedstock is imported by sea. So, seaborne. We’re not a refinery that sits on the end of a pipeline and just processes one crude. All of our feedstock is seaborne.”
He said the refinery offers flexibility, allowing it to process a wide range of Nigerian crude grades while also creating opportunities to explore alternative grades and intermediate feedstocks.
Bird also said: “It’s truly no understatement to say this is a continent-building project, and that gives me a lot of personal purpose to be part of this magnificent investment. I arrived in August, so I can’t take credit for all of the incredible commissioning and startup.
“I use the phrase ‘I stand on the shoulders of giants’ for all that has been achieved to transform this part of Lagos, part of Nigeria into truly what has the potential to become a world-scale industrial heartland.”
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