Africa Leads Global Refining Boom with Nigeria’s Dangote Refinery at the Forefront
Africa is positioned to add 1.2 million barrels per day of new refining capacity by 2030, representing one of the fastest downstream expansions globally according to the newly released 2025 OPEC World Oil Outlook. Nigeria’s 650,000-barrel-per-day Dangote Refinery, which began operations in 2024, leads this transformation and is already reshaping regional fuel trade dynamics.
The expansion includes Nigeria’s planned 200,000-barrel-per-day Akwa Ibom Refinery, Angola’s state-driven initiatives to bring online the 200,000-barrel-per-day Lobito Refinery and 100,000-barrel-per-day Soyo Refinery by 2030, and Uganda’s 60,000-barrel-per-day facility in Hoima as part of the Lake Albert basin development plan.
North African countries are also advancing significant projects, with Algeria developing Hassi Messaoud, Libya progressing with Ubari, and Egypt moving forward with Soukhna refinery projects. These initiatives aim to capture higher margins, improve domestic supply security, and reduce dependency on refined petroleum product imports.
OPEC projects that Africa will need over $40 billion in refining investments by 2030 to meet mid-decade objectives, with an additional $60+ billion required beyond 2030 for construction, modernization, and capacity upgrades. This creates a $100 billion investment opportunity for project developers, institutional investors, and sovereign wealth funds.
Africa’s rising domestic crude consumption, forecast to reach 4.5 million barrels per day by 2050 from 1.8 million barrels per day in 2024, underscores the critical need for downstream infrastructure investment.
Sources: oilreviewafrica.com, dailytrust.com
