BREAKING: The Dangote Refinery has officially become the king of Nigeria’s fuel market, supplying a massive 72.3% of the nation’s petrol in March 2026. Approximately 72.3% of Nigeria’s domestic petrol demand in March came from the Dangote Refinery; however, throughout the time under review, consumption decreased by roughly 16.9%, from 56.9 million liters per day in February to 47.3 million liters last month. Besides, though still modest compared to last year’s massive importation, the share of petrol imports in the supply mix surged by 96.7 per cent month-on-month, rising from 3 million litres per day to 5.9 million litres/day during the period. Data from the March 2026 fact sheet on midstream and downstream petroleum operations provided by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) on Tuesday, showed that the 47.3 million litres per day consumption for march fell below the national average of 50 million litres per day. Overall, the figures showed that 34.2 million liters of gasoline were supplied domestically per day in March. When measured against total consumption of 47.3 million litres per day, this placed Dangote Refinery’s contribution at approximately 72.3 per cent of the domestic market, reaffirming its dominant role in the country’s fuel supply chain. However, the supply mix also reflected a sharp increase in the role of imports. The fact sheet showed that petrol import contribution rose from 3 million litres per day in February to 5.9 million litres per day in March, equivalent to a 96.7 per cent jump in import share. Despite the downstream regulator’s statement that it has stopped issuing import licenses to oil marketers for months, there was a rise in the amount of gasoline imported between February and March. Over a year ago, owner of the 650,000 barrels per day facility in Lagos, Aliko Dangote, has pushed to end petrol imports in order to, according to him, protect local refining and grow the economy. Dangote’s refinery, which began production of petrol in 2024, has argued that Nigeria’s import licensing regime undermines local refining by allowing marketers to continue bringing in petrol even when domestic supply is increasing. The company has maintained that under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), imports should only be permitted when there is a clear supply shortfall, not as a parallel system competing with local production. However, some Nigerians and oil traders think that leaving the market solely for Dangote, without any competition from any other refinery, especially from NNPC’s defunct Port Harcourt and Warri refineries will lead to a monopoly and inflated pump prices. The NMDPRA fact sheet further showed that other domestic refining sources contributed only marginal volumes, specifically diesel refining. The three operational modular refineries: Walter Smith, Edo Refinery, and Aradel collectively supplied about 0.629 million litres per day of diesel during the month. The average capacity utilization of the Walter Smith refinery was 59.56%, supplying 0.241 million litres per day. Edo Refinery recorded 64.69 per cent utilisation with 0.051 million litres per day, while Aradel posted 58.84 per cent utilisation, delivering 0.337 million litres per day. Average diesel consumption during the period stood at 14.5 million litres daily, slightly above the 14 million litres per day national benchmark, despite the rising prices as a result of the Middle East crisis, indicating sustained demand from industrial and commercial users. Similarly, in March, aviation fuel consumption remained lower at 2.1 million litres per day compared to the 3 million litres per day benchmark for the country and against the 2.9 million litres per day supplied in February. In the whole gas market segment, total supply averaged 4.888 Billion Standard Cubic Feet Per Day (Bscf/d). Of this, 3.033 Bscf/d was supplied to the Nigeria LNG (NLNG), representing approximately 62 per cent of total gas supply. Domestic gas supply stood at 1.855 Bscf/d, with utilisation spread across key sectors. Gas-to-power accounted for 0.485 Bscf/d, commercial consumption stood at 0.430 Bscf/d, and gas-based industries utilised 0.601 Bscf/d. The NMDPRA statistics showed that throughout the time, demand exceeded supply in the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) segment. Average daily supply stood at 4,726 metric tonnes, while consumption reached 5,122 metric tonnes per day, leaving a shortfall of 396 metric tonnes daily. Also, retail LPG prices ranged between N980 and N1,450 per kilogramme nationally. According to fuel sufficiency data, diesel sufficiency was 55 days, aviation fuel was 109 days, LPG was 14 days, and gasoline stock levels, including pumpable quantities at the Dangote Refinery, were 21 days. Similarly, the midstream and downstream regulators reported that the Odidi-Warri Expansion Project (OWEP) was 67.34 percent completed, the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) gas pipeline was 79.23 percent completed, and the OB3 River Crossing was 59.50 percent completed.