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Dangote Petroleum Refinery has initiated a new legal battle against Nigeria’s attorney general, seeking a court order to overturn fuel import licences granted to independent marketers and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited.
According to court documents filed at the Federal High Court in Lagos, the refinery is demanding the nullification of import permits recently issued or renewed by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA).
The lawsuit marks a significant resurgence of industry tensions, occurring nearly a year after Dangote abruptly withdrew a similar legal challenge against the regulatory body and major trading entities.
The multi-billion-dollar refinery argues in its new filing that the newly issued licences directly undermine its domestic refining operations and violate existing statutory provisions.
Dangote’s legal team contends that under Nigerian law, fuel import permits should only be granted as a secondary measure when local manufacturing output falls short of national demand.
Furthermore, the company claims the regulatory authority’s recent actions directly breach a previous judicial order instructed to maintain the status quo within the downstream sector.
This escalating legal friction highlights unresolved systemic questions regarding competition, market supply, and regulatory oversight in one of Africa’s largest energy markets.
While Dangote’s massive 650,000-barrel-per-day facility was highly anticipated to completely end Nigeria’s historic reliance on imported petroleum products, both the state oil firm and independent fuel marketers have maintained that continued imports are vital to cushion supply gaps, protect the supply chain, and prevent widespread domestic fuel scarcity as the refinery continues to ramp up to full capacity.
