Oil refiners have called for a transparent domestic crude market, predictable commercial terms and increased investment in pipelines, terminals and other infrastructure as Nigeria’s expanding refining industry prepares for crude demand of more than 1.5 million barrels per day.

The Independent Petroleum Producers Group (IPPG) and Dangote Group said the competitiveness of Nigeria’s refining industry would depend not only on installed capacity but also on access to suitable crude at commercially workable prices and efficient evacuation infrastructure.

Speaking at the third Nigeria Oil Refining Summit in Lagos, IPPG Chairman, Adegbite Falade, said domestic refineries could require more than 1.5 million barrels of crude daily in the medium term, depending on rehabilitation, expansion, operating rates and the commissioning of additional modular refineries.

Falade said Nigeria’s liquids production stood at 1.68 million barrels per day in August 2026, according to the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission’s monthly production report.

He said the projected refinery demand would leave a narrow margin for exports, government revenue requirements, crude-backed financing, joint-venture offtake, production outages, OPEC commitments, grade
mismatches, and pipeline and terminal disruptions.

“A barrel is not simply a barrel. A refinery requires the right crude grade, in the right volume, of the right quality, delivered to the right location, at the right time and under the right commercial terms,” he said.

Falade called for aggregation of crude volumes, grade blending, transparent swaps and substitutions, efficient terminal delivery and long-term, bankable supply contracts. He also urged the government to incentivise exploration, accelerate field development, support marginal fields and improve access to capital, while modernising pipelines, terminals, storage and marine logistics.

Representing Dangote Group President, Aliko Dangote, the group’s Chief Economist, Dr Hassan Mahmud, said crude access was only one part of the ecosystem needed to make domestic refining competitive.

He said locally refined products should compete with imports under equivalent regulatory, tax, quality and commercial conditions. “No refinery should survive simply because government protects it.

Equally, no domestic refinery should be disadvantaged by a market structure that inadvertently makes imports more attractive than local production,” he said. Mahmud also stressed the need for policy stability, saying investors required clarity on crude supply, imports, taxation, foreign exchange, product standards and market access.

He said logistics was another major constraint, noting that moving millions of litres of petroleum products by road remained costly and inefficient. Mahmud called for investment in pipelines, coastal distribution, storage terminals and evacuation systems, saying Nigeria should ultimately develop refining capacity for both domestic consumption and export markets.

The Crude Oil Refiners Association of Nigeria (CORAN) also called for shared pipelines, storage terminals, jetties and rail evacuation, alongside long-term financing and strategic product reserves to cushion supply disruptions.