Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals FZE has suspended petrol sales, nullifying all active Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) deal recaps with customers, as rising demand coincides with ongoing maintenance on key processing units at the facility.
In a notice sighted by Petroleumprice.ng and circulated to counterparties on Monday, the refinery informed customers that all existing PMS deal recaps are now invalid. The communication, signed by its Group Commercial Operations team, did not provide a timeline for replacement terms or revised delivery schedules.
Deal recaps typically confirm commercial parameters such as volumes, pricing benchmarks, delivery windows, and payment conditions. Their cancellation effectively pauses previously agreed gasoline supply commitments and signals a temporary reset of trading arrangements.
Market sources link the move to a combination of heightened demand pressures and operational adjustments underway at the Lekki-based refinery, Africa’s largest with a nameplate capacity of 650,000 barrels per day.
CDU Maintenance and Throughput Adjustment
At the operational level, Dangote Refinery is preparing a short, planned shutdown of its crude distillation unit (CDU), the primary unit that processes crude oil into feedstocks for downstream conversion units.
Shipping and flow data indicate that crude inflows to the refinery have slowed in January, averaging about 290,000 barrels per day, down from roughly 440,000 barrels per day in December. With reduced feedstock availability, operating the CDU at suboptimal rates would undermine efficiency, prompting the refinery to align throughput with available crude during the maintenance window.
Industry sources describe the CDU outage as temporary and strategic, aimed at operational optimisation rather than signalling deeper supply stress. The refinery continues to fine-tune unit coordination as it transitions from ramp-up to more stable operations.
Gasoline Strategy Under Pressure
The suspension of the PMS deal recaps also comes against the backdrop of ongoing work on the refinery’s residue fluid catalytic cracker (RFCC), its main gasoline-producing unit. While the RFCC remains offline for planned maintenance, Dangote has relied on blending components from other units to sustain output.
and for locally refined petrol rising and operational flexibility constrained, market participants say the refinery may be prioritising inventory management and internal balancing over fixed commercial commitments.
