Dangote refinery utilization slips to 71%, says NMDPRA
……. Nigeria’s daily receipts of PMS, 45.5 million litres
……..Ajaokuta–Kaduna–Kano gas pipeline project 94.8% completed

By Onu Okorie

Dangote Refinery, Africa’s largest, posted an average capacity utilization of 71.09 percent in July, a decline from previors months. This was revealed by the latest factsheet from the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority NMDPRA released on Monday.

The factsheet also showed that the refinery produced 25.9 million litres of PMS a day, supplying 25.8 million litres domestically and exporting 3.4 million litres a day, while closing the month with 446.1 million litres in stock. Diesel production stood at 19.1 million litres a day, with 15.7 million supplied domestically and 11.0 million exported. Aviation fuel production reached 15.6 million litres a day, but only 1.9 million litres went to the domestic market, with 11.6 million litres exported, underscoring how much of the refinery’s jet fuel output continues to head abroad rather than to Nigerian airlines.

Overview of the factsheet indicates that the Nigeria’s downstream petroleum sector delivered a mixed performance in July with petrol supply falling sharply even as diesel receipts jumped and the country’s fuel reserves remained comfortably above the regulator’s minimum threshold.

Daily receipts of Premium Motor Spirit PMS, Nigeria’s petrol, fell 10 percent month-on-month to 45.5 million litres a day in July, down from 50.6 million litres in June. The decline was driven almost entirely by a drop in domestic supply, which fell 21 percent to 25.8 million litres a day, even as imports rose 9 percent to 19.7 million litres a day to help offset the shortfall.

Consumption told a similar story. Petrol trucked out into the domestic market fell 25 percent from June to July, down to 35.7 million litres a daym which is well below the 50 million litre daily demand benchmark the regulator uses for 2026, and the lowest monthly figure in the thirteen months of data included in the report.

Diesel AGO moved in the opposite direction. Daily receipts jumped 46 percent to 23.6 million litres, with imports going from essentially nil in June to 7.9 million litres a day in July, even as domestic diesel supply dipped slightly. Aviation fuel (ATK) receipts fell 24 percent to 1.9 million litres a day, while LPG — cooking gas — receipts rose 4 percent to 5.3 kilotonnes a day, with NLNG and other domestic processing plants supplying the bulk of the volume.
State-owned refineries remained largely idle.

The Port Harcourt Refining and Petrochemical Company stayed shut down through July, while the Warri and Kaduna refineries were both listed as “not producing.” Among the smaller modular refineries, performance varied widely: Edo Refinery ran at 95.72 percent utilization, WalterSmith at 70.42 percent, and Aradel at just 36.32 percent, while OPAC managed a mere 0.86 percent. The Duport modular refinery remained shut down entirely.

Despite the fall in petrol throughput, national fuel sufficiency held up. Petrol stock covered 22.4 days of supply, diesel covered 46.5 days, aviation fuel 58.6 days, and LPG 16.3 days — with the regulator noting that its minimum sufficiency threshold across products is 30 days, a bar that only diesel and aviation fuel cleared in July. Daily petrol sufficiency fluctuated across the month, dipping to as low as 19.11 days on July 27 before recovering slightly by month’s end.

The average pump price of petrol across major cities in July ranged from roughly ₦1,204 per litre in Lagos to ₦1,345 in Maiduguri, tracking a Dated Brent crude price of $83.41 per barrel for the period. Cooking gas retailed for an average of ₦1,325 per kilogram in Lagos, rising to ₦1,575 in Sokoto.

On the gas side, Nigeria’s major processing facilities ran at an average utilization of just 49.21 percent despite processing 7.966 billion cubic feet a day. The Soku Gas Plant led all facilities at 99.56 percent utilization, while the OB/OB Associated Gas Plant lagged at 22.95 percent. Total wholesale gas supply averaged 4.723 billion cubic feet a day, an 8 percent decline from June, split between 2.695 Bcf/day feeding NLNG’s export trains and 2.028 Bcf/day supplying the domestic market.

Major pipeline infrastructure continued moving toward completion, with the Ajaokuta–Kaduna–Kano gas pipeline project reported at 94.8 percent completion and the OB3 pipeline’s river Niger crossing fully finished, though the Escravos–Odidi expansion project lagged at just 25.72 percent complete as of July.