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Dangote Refinery Reduces Impact of Global Fuel Price Volatility, Says S&P

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Dangote

S&P Global says refinery’s stable pricing is limiting imported fuel costs despite rising global gasoline prices and freight rates

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Dangote Petroleum Refinery & Petrochemicals is playing an increasingly decisive role in shielding Nigeria from global fuel price volatility, with the latest market intelligence from S&P Global Commodity Insights indicating that the refinery’s stable domestic pricing has prevented international cost increases from translating into higher fuel prices for Nigerian consumers.

Also read: Depot Owners Cut Petrol Price to Match Dangote Rate

The assessment comes as international gasoline prices, freight rates and regional supply costs continue to climb, placing mounting pressure on fuel importers across West Africa.

Yet, despite those headwinds, the Dangote Refinery Fuel Price Stability strategy has effectively capped domestic market prices, limiting the ability of importers to transfer higher costs to motorists and businesses.

According to S&P Global Commodity Insights, traders supplying the Nigerian market have become increasingly concerned by rising international replacement costs, with several market participants acknowledging that Dangote Refinery’s pricing has become the benchmark against which imported products are measured.

One trader told S&P that gasoline prices in Nigeria are effectively being “capped by Dangote prices”, making it increasingly difficult for importers to remain competitive as global costs rise.

Another market participant observed that while gasoline meeting Ghanaian specifications currently commands stronger premiums, Nigerian specification cargoes remain under pressure because Dangote Petroleum Refinery has kept its coastal sales prices unchanged despite higher international product values.

“Lomé values have risen above Dangote sales prices, which has shut the arbitrage,” the trader said, highlighting how imported fuel has become commercially unattractive under prevailing market conditions.

The development reflects a broader shift in regional petroleum trading, where international market forces are increasingly colliding with the growing influence of domestic refining capacity in Nigeria.

S&P Global also reported a sharp increase in freight costs, noting that the cost of transporting clean petroleum products from Northwest Europe to West Africa rose from US$29.70 per metric tonne at the end of June to US$37.12 per metric tonne as shipping companies repositioned vessels to alternative markets.

At the same time, tighter diesel supplies resulting from reduced exports of Russian Black Sea cargoes have pushed prices higher across West Africa, adding another layer of cost pressure for fuel importers.

Against that backdrop, Dangote Petroleum Refinery has continued to pursue a gradual price moderation strategy rather than reacting immediately to short-term movements in international oil markets.

Since the end of May, the refinery has reduced the ex-depot price of Premium Motor Spirit by more than ₦200 per litre, Automotive Gas Oil by ₦300 per litre, and Jet A1 aviation fuel by ₦520 per litre, even though much of the crude processed during the period had been purchased when global oil prices were considerably higher.

The refinery has consistently maintained that its pricing reflects the actual cost of crude acquired under commercial supply contracts, rather than daily fluctuations in Brent crude prices.

According to the company, crude oil purchases are typically concluded weeks or months before refining, using pricing mechanisms linked to monthly average benchmarks.

Energy analysts say the latest findings reinforce the strategic value of Nigeria’s investment in large-scale domestic refining, particularly at a time when geopolitical tensions, tighter global fuel supplies and higher shipping costs continue to disrupt international energy markets.

Had Nigeria remained heavily dependent on imported petroleum products, the combination of higher international gasoline prices, elevated freight charges and rising regional trading values would likely have translated into substantially higher domestic pump prices.

Instead, analysts argue that Dangote Refinery has emerged as a powerful stabilising force, helping to moderate fuel costs while reducing the country’s exposure to volatile international supply chains.

The report also suggests that the refinery’s commercial influence now extends beyond Nigeria.

With gasoline prices at regional trading hubs such as Lomé exceeding Dangote’s domestic sales prices, market participants increasingly regard the refinery as a pricing reference point for petroleum products across West Africa.

That growing influence reflects one of the central objectives behind the establishment of the 700,000-barrel-per-day refinery: reducing dependence on imported fuel, conserving foreign exchange, strengthening energy security and providing greater price certainty for consumers and businesses.

The refinery’s impact has become more pronounced over the past year as Nigeria continues to transition from decades of import dependence towards domestic refining.

The shift has coincided with broader reforms in the downstream petroleum sector aimed at creating a more market-driven pricing environment while expanding local production capacity.

Also read: Dangote Refinery Raises Petrol Price Amid Supply Suspension Shock

As global fuel markets continue to face uncertainty from supply disruptions and rising logistics costs, the latest S&P Global assessment suggests that Nigeria’s largest refinery is not only reshaping the country’s energy landscape but also providing a valuable buffer against external price shocks that would otherwise be felt across households, transport operators and industry.

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Heirs Life Names Pastor Jerry Eze Independent Non-Executive Director

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Heirs Life appoints Jerry Eze as an Independent Non-Executive Director to strengthen financial inclusion, consumer trust and insurance adoption (more…)

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Shoreline Group secures US$200 million Afreximbank Facility

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Shoreline Group today announced that African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has approved a US$200 million facility in favour of Shoreline Power Company Limited and co-borrowers including Arkad S.p.A., Shoreline’s majority-owned engineering and construction platform.
Approved in June 2026, the facility was arranged and provided by Afreximbank as sole mandated lead arranger and lender. It provides bonding and working-capital capacity for Arkad’s delivery of the Hassi Bir Rekaiz project and supports Shoreline and its affiliates in developing further pipeline and infrastructure
projects in Nigeria and other permitted jurisdictions.
“This is a defining transaction for Shoreline and Arkad. We built Arkad as an African- sponsored engineering platform capable of competing at the highest level, and it is now delivering against a billion-dollar energy contract. Afreximbank’s US$200 million commitment gives the platform the financial strength to match its engineering capability and pursue further major infrastructure mandates. It demonstrates that African enterprises can assemble the capital, capability and partnerships required to compete for infrastructure at international scale.”
Hassi Bir Rekaiz Phase 2a Arkad holds 44 per cent of the approximately US$1 billion EPCCS-1 contract awarded by Groupement
Hassi Bir Rekaiz (GHBR) to an unincorporated consortium led by Egypt’s Petrojet, which holds 56 percent. EPCCS-1 covers engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning and start-up for the Phase 2a central processing facility and related infrastructure at the Hassi Bir Rekaiz field in Algeria’s Berkine
Basin.
GHBR is the joint operating entity for the licence, held by Sonatrach with 51 per cent and Thailand’s PTTEP with 49 per cent. The project includes a new crude oil processing facility with capacity of 31,500 barrels per day, facilities for associated gas and produced-water treatment, approximately 217 kilometres
of pipelines and the brownfield modifications required to integrate existing Phase 1 infrastructure.
The facilities are designed to support later expansion to 63,000 barrels per day under Phase 2b.
“This financing addresses the instruments that determine whether an EPC contractor can execute at scale: performance guarantees, advance payment guarantees and working capital through the project cycle. Hassi Bir Rekaiz is a demanding scope, combining a new central processing facility, associated treatment systems, pipelines and brownfield integration. With Petrojet, and with the support of Shoreline and Afreximbank, Arkad is focused on disciplined delivery against the project’s safety, quality and schedule requirements.”
The transaction was structured under Afreximbank’s Engineering, Procurement and Construction Initiative, which supports African engineering and construction firms with the financial instruments required to compete for and execute large infrastructure contracts. Afreximbank also supported the Arkad-Petrojet partnership through its EPC twinning work at the Intra-African Trade Fair held in Algiers
in 2025.
According to Afreximbank, the transaction is its first support for a Sub-Saharan African contractor undertaking a major infrastructure project in North Africa. For Shoreline, it demonstrates a practical model for combining African ownership and capital with established international engineering andindustrial capability.

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BUSINESSWOMAN AISHA ACHIMUGU SPEAKS OUT, CALLS FOR PROTECTION OF LIFE AND RESPECT FOR RULE OF LAW

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Nigerian businesswoman and investor Aisha Achimugu has made a public appeal for the protection of her life, her family, and her business interests while alleging a sustained campaign of intimidation, media trial, and asset seizures.

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Achimugu, in a statement Tuesday, said she is facing actions that she described as an affront to the rule of law and natural justice.
She then called for the respect for court orders and for an end to what she termed misleading media coverage about her person and companies.
According to Achimugu, the widow of the late Engr. Sulaiman Achimugu, former Managing Director of the Pipelines and Product Marketing Company, PPMC, she has over the last three decades built businesses in the oil and gas and other sectors, and runs the SAM Empowerment Foundation, SEF, which she said has implemented health, education, and community projects across Nigeria.
The businesswoman, however, alleged that since 2023 she has been the subject of investigations and actions by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
Narrating her ordeals, Achimugu noted that in 2023, the EFCC’s Port Harcourt zonal office froze her personal accounts, her children’s accounts, and company accounts linked to the Felak Group, based on an interim forfeiture order.
She said this was connected to a mistaken association with MBA Forex and Capital Investment.
Achimugu stated that in January 2024 she honoured an EFCC invitation with her counsel, clarified her company’s single transaction with MBA Forex, and refunded N58 million by bank draft to the EFCC recovery account.
In March 2025, the businesswoman said she received WhatsApp messages inviting her to the EFCC Port Harcourt office. Her lawyer responded in writing, proposing dates in April 2025. Despite this, she alleged a media campaign began on March 10, 2025 linking her to wrongdoing.
On March 28, 2025, the same day her company, Oceangate Oil & Gas Limited, submitted proof of $20 million payment to NUPRC for oil blocks PPL 302-DO and PPL 3007, subsequently, she claimed the EFCC declared her a “Wanted Person” for “conspiracy and money laundering.” She also alleged that EFCC operatives searched her home that day.
In April 2025, Achimugu said she filed a fundamental rights suit at the Federal High Court, Abuja. But upon returning to Nigeria on April 28, 2025 from a foreign trip, she alleged she was taken into EFCC custody, granted bail by a judge, but released five days later. She also said her international passport was collected.
She alleged further asset actions, including freezing of bank accounts, and the seizure of vehicles from her home in January 2026. She said matters relating to these actions are the subject of ongoing litigation and appeals.
Achimugu also alleged that her United States visa was revoked in April 2025, and that she encountered issues with visa processing related to her Grenadian citizenship, which she linked to media reports citing the EFCC’s declaration.
Achimugu stated that she has invested nearly $90 million in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector in the last five years and has attracted over $100 million in investments into the economy while directly employs close to 200 Nigerians.
However, she said the actions of the anti-graft agency have affected her business operations, international partnerships, and family, including her elderly parents and young children.
Achimugu then called on the National Assembly, the Judiciary, security services, and local and international human rights organizations to examine her case.
She also asked for the protection of her life and properties, respect for court orders, and an end to what she described as a “media trial”.
“I believe that justice delayed is justice denied, and I am not afraid to face the law provided due process is followed. My lawyers are pursuing all legal remedies locally and internationally,” she said.
Achimugu added that she remains committed to Nigeria and to supporting private sector growth.

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