The ongoing Iran war and the resultant disruptions in the Middle East’s oil exports have resulted in Nigeria’s Dangote oil refinery, in everyone’s surprise, emerging as a key supplier of fuel to Europe.
As the Lagos-based refinery, led by Dangote Group, headed by Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, filed its IPO last week, it also registered another striking figure: a net profit of USD 1.82 billion in the first half of 2026 on revenue of more than USD 13 billion.
The figure, as per the company, was the result of the refinery ramping up fuel exports during the global energy shock.
The latest profit figure also marks a tremendous recovery for the Dangote refinery, after the USD 476 million loss recorded in 2025.
Built to end Nigeria’s dependence on imported fuel, Dangote’s refinery has ended up influencing global fuel flows at a time of market stress. Dangote Group sees the trend continuing for the rest of 2026 as disruptions to Middle East supply persist and the refinery expands capacity.
After Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz in response to the US-Israeli attacks on its territory, which started at the end of February, Europe lost a quarter of its supply of diesel and jet fuel.
As per the reports, the resulting drop in Middle East exports has caused fuel inventories in Northwest Europe to fall to their lowest level in 12 years.
Amid the backdrop of the crisis, Dangote emerged as a worthy replacement by exporting about 80,000 barrels per day of jet fuel to the continent during the second quarter.
The figure was equivalent to roughly 13% of the resulting supply shortfall, making the refinery Europe’s largest supplier of the fuel, according to Kpler data.
Nigeria trailed only behind the United States, as the latter provided a lion’s share of Europe’s imports on a country level.
Dangote also boosted exports of diesel and gasoil, which, like jet fuel, are among a group of fuels known as middle distillates.
Dangote’s diesel and gasoil exports rose by 23% to 48,000 bpd in 2026 to date, according to Kpler.
“These barrels have increasingly supplied West Africa and Europe, where they have helped ease an otherwise tight middle-distillate market,” Kpler analyst Sumit Ritolia told Reuters.
Dangote, which started its operations in 2024, has produced roughly 270,000 to 300,000 bpd of gasoline in 2026 to date. According to Kpler, this had a straight impact on Nigeria’s imports of the fuel, with the ratio going down from around 400,000 bpd in 2024 to just 83,000 bpd this year.
In 2026, the dynamics shifted as Dangote took the lead in Nigeria’s ambition to become a significant energy exporter, moving away from Europe’s traditional role as a gasoline supplier.
Dangote is seeking to double its production capacity to 1.4 million bpd by 2029, which would make it the joint-largest refinery in the world alongside Reliance’s Jamnagar facility in India.