Legit.ng’s Pascal Oparada has reported on tech, energy, stocks, investment and the economy for over a decade.

The mega Dangote Refinery is increasingly turning to the US for crude oil supplies, following domestic shortfalls.

Experts have described the allocation of 350,000 barrels per day to the refinery by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) to the refinery as a drop in the ocean.

They disclosed that the Domestic Crude Supply Obligation (DCSO) contained in the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) is not enough for local refiners.

The DSCO allocates about 450,000 barrels per day to local refineries, which is barely enough as more facilities spring up, scrambling for the allocations.

“Currently, Nigeria is struggling to meet its 1.5 million barrels per day OPEC quota, and may not be concerned with meeting the PIA obligations,” Adeola Yusuf, energy policy analyst and Team Lead at Platforms Africa, said.

Yusuf said the lack of local producers to meet obligations is responsible for Dangote and other local refiners turning to international suppliers.

“Nigeria is struggling under the weight of crude oil theft and production shortfalls, and is not currently fixated on local refineries,” he said.

However, the Dangote Refinery bought a third of its crude from the US, the majority of which is the West Texas Intermediate (WTI).

According to Bloomberg’s ship tracking, the cargo purchases are important because they could have been sent to tankers in Europe, helping to determine the world’s most essential oil price.

Dangote’s US crude oil purchases underscore Nigeria’s inability to boost output in line with the country’s policies.

According to the report, Dangote’s increased purchases supported the Brent market a bit.

Experts expect WTI to keep going to Dangote in the future, but volumes will depend on price.

WTI blends offer Dangote advantages over Nigerian crudes that result in improved yields of reformate and better gasoline blending capabilities.

Officials at the Dangote Refinery said that the increased use of US crude shows the plant’s rising processing levels and a reduction of Nigerian crude that is available to buy.

The US blend is reportedly the largest stream of six grades, as the benchmark is popular among traders.

Analysts say the WTI was added to the benchmark due to concerns that others were slowly depleting, making trading potentially volatile.

According to the Bloomberg data, in June alone, Dangote is expected to receive 14 million barrels of WTI.

Vitol Group, the oil trading giant, was the biggest supplier of US crude to the 650 bpd facility.

The extra crude flows to the mega facility also coincided with weak demand for the blend in Asia in recent months due to Chinese tariffs on US crude and the availability of Abu Dhabi’s Murban crude.

In 2025, the refinery purchased crude from the US about five times, with July consignment due to arrive soon.

Legit.ng earlier reported that Nigeria’s petroleum market is experiencing a new price war as independent marketers and financially backed filling stations crash prices below the N875 per litre sold by the Dangote Refinery partner stations.

As of June 3, 2025, Al-Moruf Filling Station at the Power Line area in Igando in Lagos sells petrol at N865 per litre, Eunice filling station displayed N859, and MOJ sells for N865.

Meanwhile, NNPC Retail has also adjusted its rate to N870, adding to the growing list of stations challenging Dangote’s dominance in the petroleum retail market.

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Source: Legit.ng