President of the Dangote Group Aliko Dangote has announced plans to expand the oil production capacity of the Dangote Refinery from 650,000 barrels per day to 1.4 million barrels per day. He recently revealed that the existing infrastructure in Nigeria will help to bring the plan to life.
Speaking during an interview with S&P Global, as seen in the Punch Newspaper, Dangote said that while the refinery can be rebuilt at a different location, the high cost involved discourages such a move completely.
“We have to build the refinery again, either here or somewhere else. But really, somewhere else is not possible because we’d have to go and spend so much building infrastructure, and we have the infrastructure already here,” he said.
Recall that in July, the refinery disclosed that it was undergoing a strategic upgrade to expand its production capacity from 650,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 700,000 bpd by the end of 2025.
Dangote Refinery currently has a capacity of 650,000 barrels per day (bpd), making it the world’s seventh largest refinery and Africa’s largest.
With an upgrade to 700,000 bpd, Dangote Refinery would beat South Korea’s Onsan Refinery, which is ranked sixth with a capacity of 669,000 bpd.
However, with the latest plan to expand to 1.4 million barrels per day, the Dangote Refinery will seal its position as the largest oil refinery in the world, beating the world’s largest 1.36 mbpd refinery in Jamnagar, India.
Global energy and commodity agency Argus recently announced that the refinery’s output increased to approximately 610,000 barrels per day (bpd) in August 2025, approaching its official nameplate capacity of 650,000 bpd.
According to Benedict George, Editor of the Argus European Products Report, the factory had exceeded industry expectations by continuing to operate at high levels into 2025.
“In recent months, we have been looking at above 400,000 barrels per day. As of June, we were around 440,000, 450,000 barrels per day.
So we are well above half of its nameplate capacity. And output is rising starkly as a result, as you can imagine. This month alone, we are looking at around 610,000 barrels per day in implied running rates,” he added.
