Nigeria’s Dangote Refinery has achieved a landmark milestone by delivering its first gasoline shipment to the United States, signaling a major expansion of the country’s refined product exports beyond Africa.
According to Reuters, citing vessel-tracking data and sources, a 320,000-barrel cargo arrived at the Port of New York on Sunday, September 14, 2025, aboard the Panama-flagged tanker Gemini Pearl.
The shipment, facilitated by commodity trader Vitol and North American fuel distributor Sunoco, saw Sunoco purchasing the majority of the cargo, with Vitol retaining a smaller portion.
A second shipment, sold by Glencore to Shell, is expected to arrive in New York on September 19, further confirming that the gasoline produced at the 650,000-barrel-per-day Lekki-based refinery meets the stringent U.S. market standards.
Owned by Nigerian industrialist Aliko Dangote, the refinery, which began gasoline production in September 2024 after starting with diesel and naphtha, aims to satisfy Nigeria’s domestic fuel demand while exporting surplus volumes.
The refinery has already exported 1.1 billion liters of gasoline to Asia and West Africa between June and early September 2025, as reported by Nigerian media.
Additionally, Vinmar International, a global petrochemicals distributor, earlier highlighted the refinery’s role in exporting high-quality polypropylene, stating, “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.”
However, operations face challenges following the August 29 shutdown of the refinery’s Residue Fluidized Catalytic Cracking Unit (RFCCU) due to catalyst leaks.
Analysts from IIR Energy estimate repairs may extend until November, potentially disrupting Nigeria’s domestic gasoline supply, which exceeds 50 million liters daily.
This could force the country to resume costly fuel imports, undermining the refinery’s goal of reducing reliance on foreign supplies.
Despite these setbacks, the successful U.S. shipments indicates Nigeria’s growing influence in global refined product markets, with the Dangote Refinery now exporting to North America, Africa, and Asia, marking a transformative step for the nation’s energy sector.
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