The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has told the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos that petroleum products from the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals FZE are sold at “significantly high and fluctuating market prices,” warning that granting the refinery’s requests could hand it monopoly control of Nigeria’s downstream petroleum sector.
The national oil company stated this in a counter-affidavit in opposition to Dangote Refinery’s originating summons in Suit No: FHC/L/CS/857/2026 before the Federal High Court, Lagos Judicial Division.
In a proposed defence filed at the Federal High Court in Lagos, NNPC said granting Dangote’s request to void or restrict import permits would expose Africa’s largest oil producer to supply disruptions, price instability, and risks to national energy security.
The regulator, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, has applied to join the case, widening a legal battle over import policy and Dangote Refinery’s market position.
NNPC maintained that there was no evidence showing the refinery could independently satisfy Nigeria’s petroleum product demand. “There is no credible, independent, or verifiable evidence before this honourable court establishing that the plaintiff presently satisfies the petroleum product demands of Nigeria,” NNPC argued.
The company outlined the disadvantages of monopoly in the sector, including arbitrary pricing, and argued that one of the benefits of healthy competition in the downstream petroleum sector is the reduction in fuel prices through competitive pricing.
NNPC rejected Dangote’s legal argument, saying the Petroleum Industry Act allows import licences to companies with local refining licences or proven records in international crude and petroleum-product trading, and that regulators retain the discretion to manage imports under Nigeria’s backward-integration policy.
The company also argued that the Dangote Refinery had earlier filed a similar action before the Abuja Judicial Division of the Federal High Court in Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/1324/2024 against the NMDPRA and six others over import licences and levies before later withdrawing the case and instituting another action in Lagos.
The NNPC’s position in the courtroom sits in sharp contrast to its own record on refining. The state firm’s own refineries at Port Harcourt and Warri have collectively consumed more than $2.4 billion in public funds without producing a meaningful drop of refined fuel output.
Now, the same institution is in a Federal High Court in Lagos, arguing that a privately built, fully operational 650,000-barrel-per-day refinery should not be allowed to use the law to shut out foreign competition.
According to Vanguard News, Dangote Refinery met its maximum 650,000-barrel-per-day capacity in February 2026 and was supplying almost 80 percent of Nigeria’s daily petrol consumption in April. The refinery previously sued over the same issue in 2024 but withdrew the case after government intervention.
The latest legal dispute was triggered by recent approvals granted by the NMDPRA to six companies to import about 720,000 metric tonnes of Premium Motor Spirit to support domestic supply, a move Dangote argues contradicts provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act.