The Dangote Petroleum Refinery has said it will make enough fuel available to Nigerians, as it urged the government to provide adequate crude oil to the Lekki-based plant.

Otherwise, the company said it would have to export its products if it keeps importing crude oil for its production.

The President of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, told Al Jazeera that the facility was almost running out of aviation fuel and diesel but had petrol in excess.

As the US-Iran war disrupted the global supply of petroleum products, African countries are relying more on the 650,000-capacity refinery in Lekki, Lagos State.

“The demand is so high, I can tell you for nothing. Today, we have almost sold out our jet fuel. We have almost sold out our gas oil. What we have is just the gasoline (petrol), which is the PMS; we call it Premium Motor Spirit. That’s the only one that we have in excess,” Aliko Dangote said.

The revelation by Dangote was seen as a source of concern for those in the aviation sector and manufacturers who rely on diesel for power generation and transportation.

However, speaking with our correspondent, a senior management official of the Dangote Group, who did not want his name in print because of the sensitivity of the matter, said the refinery would not starve Nigeria even as global fuel demand surged.

The official stated that this would depend on the availability of domestic crude for the refinery. “No! We will not starve Nigeria, as long as they keep giving us crude,” the official said.

Following the company’s complaint that it was getting less than five million barrels of crude instead of the 19.7 million barrels needed monthly by the refinery, the official confirmed to our correspondent that talks are currently ongoing with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and other oil producers.

He warned that the refinery would export its products if it imports crude oil for refining. “Yes, we are talking with them. If we have to import the crude, we will have to export the products,” he stressed.

The Dangote refinery pumps out 75 million litres of petrol, 25 million litres of diesel, and 20 million litres of aviation fuel daily. The refinery recently sold 12 cargoes, totalling 456,000 tonnes of fuel, to Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Tanzania, Ghana, and Togo.

According to Al Jazeera, African countries are not the only ones lobbying to buy fuel from Dangote. Europe, Asia, and South America are also bidding for the cargoes. But the refinery is currently battling crude shortages, forcing it to seek alternatives outside the country.

During a live television programme on Arise News last week, the Chief Executive Officer of the Dangote refinery, David Bird, said the facility was buying Nigerian crude in foreign markets at a premium after it had earlier requested the product locally before being shipped abroad.

According to Bird, the company receives far below its agreed crude oil supply under the Federal Government’s naira-for-crude deal. Bird stated that the refinery currently gets only five cargoes of crude monthly instead of the expected 13 to 15 cargoes.

He said the shortfall has been affecting the refinery’s ability to optimise local crude as it keeps importing feedstock from other countries. “What we see under that agreement, we should be getting about 13 to 15 cargoes a month. And that’s what we could process to meet the domestic fuel requirements of Nigeria. Currently, we’re only getting five. So, that’s an underperformance against that pre-agreed volume contract,” he said.

Diesel prices surge

Meanwhile, Nigeria has recorded one of the sharpest increases in diesel prices globally following tensions linked to Iran, ranking second among countries with the highest surge.

According to new data by InvestorSight, diesel prices in Nigeria rose by 78.3 per cent since the US-Iran war started, placing the country just behind the Philippines, which recorded the highest increase of 81.6 per cent.

The data, which compared price movements across major economies, indicated that several Asian countries experienced the steepest increases, with Malaysia and Vietnam also posting significant rises of 57.9 per cent and 45.9 per cent, respectively.

Nigeria’s surge was higher than increases recorded in advanced economies such as the United States at 41.2 per cent, Germany at 30.9 per cent, and the United Kingdom at 18.0 per cent.

Oil-producing nations in the Middle East recorded comparatively modest changes, with Saudi Arabia and India showing no increase, while the United Arab Emirates and Qatar posted 7.9 per cent increases each.

The development highlights Nigeria’s vulnerability to global fuel market disruptions despite being an oil-producing country. Diesel remains a critical fuel for industries, transporters, manufacturers, and power generation for businesses, many of which rely on generators due to an unstable electricity supply.

The commodity rose from N900 per litre to N1,600 as a result of the Middle East crisis, which started on February 28. Analysts noted that rising diesel costs typically translate into higher logistics expenses, elevated production costs, and upward pressure on inflation, as manufacturers and service providers pass on the additional burden to consumers.

“As you can see, despite local refining, our prices in Nigeria are rising at a faster rate than in other countries. So, we are in a dilemma,” a major marketer said, as another observed that no West African country is similarly impacted.

Nonetheless, some marketers had earlier argued that fuel prices would have risen to N3,000 if not for the impact of the Dangote refinery.