Indian consultancy wins contract to double Dangote refinery capacity

Centre Director Amit Jain at the Dangote Fertilizer Plant in Nigeria.

Engineers India Limited (EIL) has secured a contract worth over US$350mn to steer the doubling of capacity at the Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical Complex in Nigeria. The facility, controlled by billionaire industrialist Aliko Dangote, will become the world’s largest oil refinery once the expansion is complete.

The state-owned Indian engineering firm, which also managed the site’s first phase, is tasked with overseeing the project to increase production from 650,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 1.4m bpd. Upon completion, the Dangote plant will overtake the Reliance Industries-owned Jamnagar Refinery in Gujarat, India – currently the world’s largest with a 1.24m bpd capacity.

EIL will provide project management consultancy (PMC) and engineering, procurement, and construction management (EPCM) services for the project, which is scheduled to commence in 2026 with a three-year timeline. To fast-track delivery, the build will replicate existing infrastructure, avoiding the need for new designs. The second phase aims to introduce Euro VI-grade fuels, which adhere to stricter emissions standards than the current Euro V output. Additionally, the plant intends to triple its annual production of polypropylene – a plastic used in packaging and car parts – to 2.4m tonnes. 

The refinery, which began production in 2024, is viewed as a transformational economic asset for Nigeria. Despite being Africa’s largest oil producer, pumping about 1.3m barrels daily, the country has historically exported raw crude while importing refined products due to the collapse of state-owned domestic refineries. This has been a significant drain on foreign exchange reserves. The Dangote facility is designed to meet 100% of Nigeria’s demand for refined products such as petrol, diesel and kerosene, with surplus designated for export.

Separately, the Dangote Group is targeting a 2026 listing of up to 10% of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery on the Nigerian Exchange, with an eventual dual listing in London also in its sights. To mitigate currency risk, Aliko Dangote has proposed a unique dividend model where investors purchase equity in naira but receive returns in US dollars – a structure supported by the company’s foreign exchange earnings from the export of refined products.

 

References

'RPL Jamnagar: the world’s largest oil refinery', Climate TRACE, 9 October 2024

'Dangote refinery produces 57 million litres of petrol daily, meets Nigeria's local demand', BusinessDay, 23 February 2025

'Nigeria’s Dangote to more than double refinery capacity', Bloomberg, 26 October 2025

'Dangote refinery plans capacity expansion to 1.4m bpd', Freedom Online, 14 January 2026

'EIL to expand Africa’s biggest Dangote refinery', Engineers India Limited, 17 January 2026

'Dangote to build world’s largest single-site refinery with $350 million expansion deal', BusinessDay, 18 January 2026

'Dangote to offer dollar-denominated dividends for refinery IPO', Punch Nigeria, 20 January 2026