Nigeria’s Dangote refinery has marked a historic step with its first gasoline cargo delivered to the United States, signaling the country’s emergence as a refined fuel exporter beyond the African market.
Vessel-tracking data and media sources revealed that a 320,000-barrel gasoline cargo from the Dangote refinery arrived in the United States aboard the Panama-flagged tanker Gemini Pearl, which docked at the Port of New York on Sunday.
The shipment was facilitated by commodity trader Vitol in partnership with North American fuel distributor Sunoco. While most of the cargo was purchased by Sunoco, Vitol kept a smaller portion.
A follow-up shipment from the Lagos-based refinery, arranged by Glencore and sold to Shell, is expected to reach New York on September 19. The two consignments demonstrate that gasoline refined at the Dangote facility meets the strict quality benchmarks required for entry into the U.S. market.
The 650,000-barrel-per-day refinery, located in Lekki, Lagos, began producing gasoline in September 2024 after initially starting operations with diesel and naphtha earlier that year. Owned by Nigerian industrialist Aliko Dangote, the facility is designed to meet all of Nigeria’s refined fuel needs and export surplus volumes.
“This collaboration marks an important step in expanding the reach of high-quality polypropylene produced at Dangote’s new refinery and petrochemical complex in Lekki, Nigeria,” Vinmar International, a global petrochemicals distributor partnering with the refinery, stated earlier this year when announcing plans for polypropylene exports.
The refinery has already exported gasoline to Asia and West Africa, with Nigerian media reporting a total of 1.1 billion liters shipped between June and early September 2025.
Operational challenges test refinery’s stability
The refinery has run into technical difficulties that threaten its smooth operations. On August 29, its Residue Fluidized Catalytic Cracking Unit (RFCCU)—a vital component for gasoline production—was forced offline due to catalyst leaks. Industry analysts at IIR Energy warn that the repair work could stretch until November, far longer than the initial two-week projection.
This prolonged outage has sparked fresh concerns over Nigeria’s energy security, given the country’s daily consumption of more than 50 million liters of gasoline. The disruption raises questions about the refinery’s reliability at a time when it is expected to ease dependence on costly fuel imports.
The Guardian NG reported that “the Dangote refinery was expected to replace much of the country’s costly fuel imports, but prolonged downtime could force the government and marketers to resume sourcing cargoes abroad at higher prices.”
In spite of the short-term setback, the refinery’s maiden shipments to the United States highlight a turning point for Nigeria in the global refined fuel trade, with its exports now reaching North America in addition to established markets in Africa and Asia.
