Dangote Refinery drives Nigeria’s £1bn refined fuel exports to UK

Résumé détaillé

Britain bought £1.02bn worth of refined petroleum products from Nigeria in the 12 months to June 2026, suggesting Africa’s biggest oil-producing country is beginning to sell the…

Britain bought £1.02bn worth of refined petroleum products from Nigeria in the 12 months to June 2026, suggesting Africa’s biggest oil-producing country is beginning to sell the UK finished fuel rather than just the raw material it was once known for.

The figure comes from the UK government’s latest Trade and Investment Factsheet, published on 6 November. It shows refined petroleum accounted for 53.5 per cent of all merchandise the UK imported from Nigeria over the period, making it the single largest category of goods flowing from Lagos to British buyers.

The pace of the increase is striking. Imports of refined oil from Nigeria more than doubled compared with the 12 months to June 2025, according to the factsheet, a jump that would be notable in any trade relationship and is especially so in one long defined by crude.

Behind the shift sits the Dangote Petroleum Refinery, the Lagos-based complex with a nameplate capacity of 650,000 barrels per day. The plant has been steadily widening its presence in international fuel markets, and the UK data offers some of the clearest evidence yet that its output is finding buyers well beyond West Africa.

Trade composition has changed along with volume. Refined products have now overtaken crude oil as Nigeria’s leading petroleum export to Britain. The factsheet shows refined shipments were roughly 85 per cent higher in value than crude, a gap of £467m. That implies crude exports of somewhere around £550m, though the headline comparison is the one that matters: for the first time in this series, processed fuel is clearly ahead.

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