Wednesday, August 12, 2026 - The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) says Nigeria plans to allocate all of its crude oil production to the domestic market by 2030 as local refining capacity expands.
According to a report by S&P Global, Nigeria produced
1.74 million barrels of crude oil per day in June and plans to increase
production to 3 million barrels per day by 2030. Nigeria has historically
exported most of its crude oil to refiners in Europe and Asia. However, the
country is increasingly focusing on expanding its domestic refining capacity to
strengthen energy security and boost national revenue.
The NMDPRA told the publication that Nigeria’s current
domestic refining capacity stands at about 1.12 million barrels per day. The
authority said it has also engaged the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory
Commission (NUPRC) to enforce legal provisions requiring local producers to
supply crude oil to domestic refineries.
Rabiu Umar, NMDPRA chief executive officer (CEO), said the
Dangote refinery is helping to increase Nigeria’s domestic refining capacity,
particularly with its plan to double its processing capacity to 1.4 million
barrels per day. Umar said the authority is working to address crude oil supply
shortages faced by local refineries and ensure compliance with the Domestic
Crude Supply Obligation (DCSO) under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
“The Federal Government wishes to end the pattern where much
of the country’s crude [volumes] are exported and refined products imported,”
Umar said. “We are engaging the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory
Commission to ensure that every molecule of our 3 million b/d that we hope to
achieve in the coming years is refined locally.”
According to NUPRC data published on August 10, Nigerian
crude producers supplied 53.7 million barrels of crude oil to domestic
refineries in the second quarter (Q2) of 2026. Of that volume, 52.6 million
barrels were supplied to the Dangote refinery. The upstream regulator said the
Dangote refinery had been offered a higher volume of 68.1 million barrels,
which would have fully met its crude oil requirements.
According to the S&P Global report, the Dangote
refinery, which supplies as much as 90 percent of Nigeria’s refined petroleum
products, has previously said that securing sufficient and reliable crude oil
supplies remains a challenge. As a result, the refinery has sought crude oil
from international sources to support its operations and expansion.
S&P Global said the state-owned Nigerian National
Petroleum Company (NNPC) was originally expected to supply most of the
refinery’s crude. However, its ability to do so was restricted following the
refinery’s launch in 2024 because of the company’s forward-selling commitments.
The Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), which came into effect in
2021, empowers the NUPRC to impose Domestic Crude Supply Obligations on
upstream operators and licensees. The law also allows the regulator to require
a specified percentage of crude oil and condensate production to be allocated
for domestic sale.
A spokesperson for the NUPRC confirmed to Platts, S&P
Global Energy’s pricing and news division, that discussions were ongoing with
relevant government agencies over enforcement of the provision. “We have been
holding meetings involving the NMDPRA, Ministry of Finance, and crude suppliers
on the enforcement of this provision of the law,” the NUPRC spokesperson said.
In May, the NUPRC said upstream producers offered 68.7
million barrels of crude oil to domestic refiners in the first quarter (Q1) of
2026 but ultimately supplied less than half of that volume. The commission
attributed the gap between the crude volumes offered and those actually
delivered to differences in pricing between producers and domestic refiners.
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