Nigeria’s Fuel War is Heading to Court

For decades, Nigeria imported virtually all its fuel. The country’s state-owned refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna sat largely idle, and fuel traders were the backbone of national supply. That arrangement is now being challenged in the courts, and how every Nigerian buys petrol could be affected by the outcome.

Three major fuel trading companies—Matrix Energy, AA Rano, and AYM Shafa—have filed a lawsuit in Abuja against the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), demanding that their import licences should continue to be renewed. They argue that restricting imports gives one supplier too much power and, should that supplier ever go offline, everyday Nigerians will suffer.

The supplier they are not naming directly is Dangote Petroleum Refinery, the largest private refinery in Africa, built by Aliko Dangote, Nigeria’s richest man. Dangote has filed his own suit at the Federal High Court in Lagos, seeking the cancellation of fuel import licences altogether. His argument is that imports should only be allowed when local production falls short of national demand, as stated in the Petroleum Industry Act. A key hearing is scheduled for October 7.

The NMDPRA has been caught between both positions all year. Earlier in 2026, it suspended import licences, citing sufficient local supply. Then, after supply gaps caused by Middle East instability and scheduled refinery maintenance, it reversed the suspension, issuing fresh licences to six firms for roughly 720,000 metric tonnes of petrol.

Dangote was not very happy with the reversal, as demonstrated by his response: threatening to redirect his refinery’s entire output to export markets if the government kept bypassing local capacity.

The marketers say free imports could push pump prices below N800 per litre. The refinery says sustained imports drain foreign exchange and make energy self-sufficiency impossible.

Actually, this kind of fuel tension is not new; Nigerians have lived with it for generations. What is new is that a private Nigerian company now has enough capacity to take the government to court over it.