Regina Otokpa 
Africa’s foremost industrialist, Aliko Dangote, has identified the offshore Lomé floating fuel market as the biggest threat to Sub-Saharan Africa’s ambition of attaining refining self-sufficiency.
Delivering the keynote address at the West Africa Refined Fuel Market: Pathway to Regional Reference Market energy conference in Abuja on Tuesday, Dangote accused international traders of operating a “fraudulent floating market” off the coast of Togo, which, he said, is undermining Africa’s refining capabilities to protect their profits.
The conference was organised by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) in collaboration with S&P Global Commodity Insights.
“Another major barrier is the offshore Lomé floating market—a uniquely African phenomenon. International traders maintain floating storage of over 2 million tons of petroleum products offshore Lomé. These products are sold at inflated prices due to the absence of local refining capacity,” Dangote stated.
He said the moment the Dangote Refinery became operational, traders crashed prices in a bid to discourage the emergence of other refineries.
“The entire purpose of offshore Lomé is to ensure refineries do not develop in Sub-Saharan Africa. In fact, I do not foresee any new major refinery project succeeding if the Lomé market continues to exist,” he warned.
According to him, dismantling this obstacle will require coordinated policy action, regional cooperation, and above all, strong political will.
“Without political support, no new large-scale refinery will be built in our lifetime. Those profiting from the current system will aggressively resist any change because building a refinery threatens powerful interests.”
Dangote also raised alarm over the increasing importation of cheap, substandard, and often toxic petroleum products into Africa—products he said would never be permitted in Europe or North America.
“Thanks to discounts on Russian petroleum products, we’re seeing a flood of low-cost imports produced in or with Russian materials, severely undercutting our locally produced fuels which are based on fair pricing,” he explained.
“In many African countries, petrol and diesel retail for about a dollar per litre excluding taxes. In Nigeria, the price has dropped to around 60 cents—cheaper than in Saudi Arabia—due to rampant dumping. This has created a grossly uneven playing field.”
He called on African governments to emulate the United States, Canada, and the European Union in adopting protectionist measures to safeguard local producers.
“We cannot allow dumping to destroy our manufacturing base, as has happened elsewhere. Those who are serious should be encouraged to build refineries, and licenses not in use should either be revoked or penalised annually,” he declared.
Reflecting on the Dangote Group’s journey in delivering the 650,000 barrels-per-day refinery—the world’s largest single-train facility—Dangote outlined three categories of challenges: technical, commercial, and contextual, with the latter proving the most difficult due to corruption and rent-seeking.
“Beyond infrastructure, the biggest hurdle was entrenched rent-seeking within the petroleum value chain. This sector has long been a hotbed for corruption, and that system fiercely resists change,” he noted.
He further criticised International Oil Companies (IOCs) for making crude oil access difficult, lamenting that even after securing crude, logistics posed another major challenge.
“The IOCs were the most uncooperative. After getting the crude, we faced exorbitant port charges that made up 40% of total freight costs—two-thirds of the cost of chartering a vessel including crew, insurance, and fuel.”
Despite the odds, Dangote revealed that the refinery has already exported about 1 million tons of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) from early June to date, equivalent to 50 days of consumption.
“To those crying monopoly, I say: let others build refineries too. It is the duty of the NMDPRA and the government to encourage this. Anyone who holds a refinery license and isn’t using it should either lose it or pay an annual penalty,” he concluded.
