In a bizarre circular trade pattern, local oil marketers are increasingly importing petrol and diesel from the Dangote refinery into Nigeria via the offshore ship-to-ship (STS) trading hub in Lomé, Togo.
According to Matthew Tracey-Cook, an official with S&P Global Energy, this indirect routing underscores a significant pricing disparity between Nigerian domestic fuel costs and international markets.
Speaking on Thursday at a Major Energies Marketers Association of Nigeria (MEMAN) webinar titled “West Africa pricing and flows in the context of the war,” Tracey-Cook revealed that over the last six months, Dangote-produced fuel has completely dominated waterborne deliveries returning to Lagos.
The Lomé hub connection
Data from S&P Global shows that between March and May 2026, roughly 70% to 80% of the waterborne fuel imported directly into Nigeria actually originated from Dangote’s coastal volumes before being re-imported from Togo.
The offshore Lomé market continues to grow as a vital regional transhipment point. Large Medium-Range (MR) tankers load fuel at the Dangote facility in Lekki, transport it to Lomé, and discharge it via ship-to-ship transfers onto smaller coaster vessels. These smaller ships are better suited to navigate West African ports that lack the deep-water capacity for fully laden megatankers.
This continuous reliance on the Togolese hub exposes a breakdown in the domestic supply chain, where buying local fuel via a foreign middleman remains cheaper than buying it directly at home.
The Depot and Petroleum Product Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN) previously alleged that the Dangote refinery sells petrol to international traders at prices up to N65 per litre cheaper than what is offered directly to domestic buyers.
This pricing gap enables international traders to buy in massive volumes, move the product to Lomé, and resell it to Nigerian marketers who find it cheaper to import it back home than buy it directly at the refinery gates.
While the Dangote refinery has strongly dispelled allegations of favouring foreign buyers, industry benchmarks show that local petrol pricing remains tightly bound to the offshore Lomé STS indexes.
Global shockwaves: Dangote becomes top jet fuel exporter
Tracey-Cook also detailed how the recent three-month military conflict between the United States and Iran structurally transformed the Dangote refinery into a global “supplier of last resort.”
Prior to the war, Europe relied on the Persian Gulf for over 50% of its aviation fuel. When the conflict cut off Middle Eastern supply lines, global jet fuel benchmarks skyrocketed past $1,800 per metric tonne.
The supply vacuum triggered a massive surge in exports from the West African facility.
Data indicates that by May 2026, the Dangote refinery had become the single largest exporter of jet fuel globally, shipping record capacities to international destinations including the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and South Africa.
Read Also: ‘Dangote Refinery’s prices are high, unstable’, NNPC tells court to back fuel imports
