Dangote the only active petrol producer in Nigeria, NNPC only blends — Energy Analyst
Energy analyst Kelvin Emmanuel has said that the Dangote Refinery is currently the only facility in Nigeria actively producing Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), widely known as petrol.
Speaking during a segment on Channels Television’s Morning Brief, Emmanuel challenged the federal government’s claims about revitalising state-owned refineries, asserting that these facilities remain inactive or are only performing blending activities rather than full refining processes.
“I’ve always maintained, and I stand by it: the only refinery in Nigeria producing PMS is Dangote. Dangote is doing 44 million litres of PMS daily,” Emmanuel stated.
He argued that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) is not refining petrol, but instead blending components.
“Warri has a catalytic reforming unit, but it’s not functional,” he explained. “You can produce naphtha, but you can’t crack it into higher distillates like PMS. The same is true of Port Harcourt.”
Emmanuel referred to data from the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) to support his position, saying state-owned refineries have not produced petrol in any true sense.
“What they were doing was barging C5 raciness into the refinery, mixing it with naphtha, condensing it, and calling it PMS,” he explained.
He cited the theoretical production capacities of Nigeria’s key state-run refineries: Port Harcourt’s older and newer units (60,000 and 150,000 barrels per day), Warri (125,000 barrels per day), and Kaduna (110,000 barrels per day). However, he insisted none of them is presently refining PMS.
Even with Kaduna Refinery’s two Crude Distillation Units (CDUs), with capacities of 50,000 and 60,000 barrels per day, Emmanuel said the site remains idle in terms of petrol production.
He also mentioned several modular refineries across the country, including Arabel in Rivers State, Walter Smith, DuPont Mainstream, and OPAC, which have production capacities ranging from 1,000 to 11,000 barrels per day. Despite their existence, he said their contributions to the national fuel supply are negligible.
Beyond the question of functionality, Emmanuel took issue with the government’s failure to introduce a hydrocarbon accounting framework, which he said results in unreliable figures for crude oil production and revenue tracking.
“Nigeria is one of the few crude oil-producing countries in the world without a hydrocarbon accounting framework,” he remarked.
He referred to Section 69 of the Petroleum Industry Act, which mandates Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping, wellhead metering, and proper oil flow monitoring. Emmanuel argued that none of these requirements are currently being implemented.
He also cited a controversial financial arrangement involving a firm licensed in Nigeria, which received $450 million worth of crude oil from NNPC to fund refinery maintenance.
Emmanuel questioned the logic of approving such a large sum for maintenance when it could have funded the construction of an entirely new refinery.
According to him, the funds approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) in 2021 for refinery turnaround maintenance could have been better utilised in building new, modern refining infrastructure.
