Nigeria’s Dangote refinery made its first gasoline shipment to North America in the final week of August, according to ship tracking data, marking a new milestone for its reach beyond Africa.
Since starting operations in 2024, the major refinery has aimed to capture Nigeria’s gasoline market and break a long history of import dependence to supply the country’s fuel.

However, since the refinery began producing gasoline last September, its supply has gradually found its way into a growing number of international markets, including neighboring African countries, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

A medium-range ship, Gemini Pearl, left the refinery’s Lekki seaport laden with around 300,000 barrels of gasoline on Aug. 26, with an expected arrival at New York and New Jersey on Sept. 12, according to S&P Global Commodities at Sea data.
Three market sources confirmed that the ship loaded gasoline from the port, marking the inaugural export of the motor fuel to the US market. The delivery was agreed under a private bilateral deal, sources said, contrasting with previous open market tenders issued by Dangote for other products like residual fuel.

Beyond Nigeria
With a domestic gasoline market of some 300,000 b/d, Nigeria’s ballooning production from Dangote has promised to overhaul established import routes and drive out low-quality supplies.
At its current 650,000 b/d capacity, the refinery is expected to be capable of producing around 210,000 b/d of gasoline at an 85% utilization rate, leaving it shy of domestic consumption that is anticipated to grow steadily each year.
However, as a privately run business, the Dangote Group has shown an appetite to diversify its consumer base and commercially optimize its trade flows.

By the end of 2024, the refinery had begun shipping its gasoline to various African markets, including Cameroon, Ghana, Angola and South Africa, dealing either through traders like Trafigura and Vitol or directly with foreign counterparties.

At the time, Dangote Vice President Devakumar Edwin said West, Central and Southern Africa would be focus markets for the refinery’s early-stage gasoline exports, with North and South America offering attractive sinks in the future.

In 2025, the refinery’s gasoline exports spiked to roughly 90,000 b/d in June, reaching diverse markets including Oman, Singapore and Malaysia. However, a string of production outages and maintenance on the site’s main gasoline unit, the residue fluid catalytic cracker, appeared to otherwise crimp flows, keeping volumes minimal.
However, under a form of swap agreement with the Nigerian government, the “naira-for-crude” deal, the refinery is obliged to supply fixed volumes of its oil products into the domestic market.

Export options
Analysts remain uncertain over how trade flows could settle as the refinery stabilizes its operations, but stress that the business remains under significant political pressure to keep gasoline supplies local.
Nevertheless, as a major global importer, the US has already emerged as a prominent export market for products like jet fuel and provides a good fit for Dangote fuel quality specifications, sources said.

“It could be a market that works for them,” a Europe-based gasoline trader said, noting a higher sulfur tolerance in the US compared to rival markets that has made limits of up to 30 parts per million acceptable.

The US Environmental Protection Agency mandates an average sulfur limit of 10 ppm at the pump for its fuel retailers, well above the 50 ppm seen as standard in the FOB West Africa Market. However, with an average sulfur limit over time, US terminals can tolerate supplies at far higher levels over short periods, sources said.

Additionally, a US decision in April allowing the continued sale of E15 blends has kept higher sulfur gasoline in circulation by permitting supplies to be blended down with up to 15% ethanol.

The US imported some 630,000 b/d of gasoline in the second quarter of 2025, of which the Netherlands supplied around 24%, Canada supplied roughly 17% and India supplied 11%, according to CAS data.
Source: Platts