Nigeria turns back to petrol imports as local supply falls

Nigeria is turning back to petrol imports as domestic supply fell 21 percent in July, highlighting renewed pressure on local refining to meet the country’s fuel needs even as Dangote Refinery remained the sole domestic supplier.

According to the ‘State of the midstream and downstream sector factsheet’ report for July 2026, released by the Nigerian Midstream, Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, the total supply of petrol in the period, dropped to 45.5 million litres per day (ml/d) from 50.6 million litres per day recorded in June.

Of the total 45.5 ml/d recorded in the month, domestic supplies which stood at 25.8ml/d with Dangote refinery being the sole supplier. This volume represents a 21 percent decline from 32.5 m/d recorded in previous month, while the volume of petrol imported in the month stood at 19.7 ml/d from 18.1 ml/d in June.

Also, the daily consumption for the month of July dropped to 35.7 ml/d from 47.4 ml/d recorded in June.

The pump price of petrol was highest in Maiduguri as a litre was sold for N1,400, while Lagos state recorded the least pump price at N1, 131/ litre.

Nigeria also recorded a slight decline in the domestic supply of AGO which dropped to 15.7 ml/d from 16.2 ml/d. The daily consumption dropped from 16 ml/d to 14.7ml/d.

However, domestic supply of liquified petroleum gas (LPG) increased by 22 percent from 3.6 kt/d to 4.4 kt/d in July, as consumption increased by 7 percent to 4.4kt/ d.

The report showed that Dangote refinery operated at 71 percent capacity in the month, as total petrol produced stood at 25.9 ml/d. Of this total, 25.8 million litres were distributed to the domestic matket while 3.4 million were exported to foreign markets.

The state-owed refineries remained shut down in the period.

The report showed that the total gas supplied in the month was 4.723 Bcf/day, of which the average daily gas supplied to NLNG stood at 2.695 Bcf/day while 2.028 Bcf/day was supplied to domestic market.

A total of 0.534 Bcf/day was utilized by the power sector, 0.552 Bcf/day was utilized for commercial purposes while 0.507 Bcf/day was utilized by gas based industries.