Dangote Refinery Records $1.82 Billion Profit in First Half of 2026

The Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals has recorded a major financial turnaround, reporting approximately $13.9 billion in revenue and $1.82 billion in profit after tax during the first half of 2026.

The figures, contained in the company’s Initial Public Offering (IPO) prospectus, represent a sharp reversal from the refinery’s financial performance in 2025, when it recorded a $476 million loss for the full year.

The refinery, located in Lekki, Lagos, has increasingly ramped up operations and reached its current 700,000-barrel-per-day capacity. The improvement in profitability has also been supported by disruptions in global fuel supplies, particularly those linked to conflicts in the Middle East and the Russia-Ukraine war, which have tightened international refining capacity and boosted demand for refined products.

The turnaround represents a significant milestone for a facility that began operations in 2024 after an investment of about $20 billion. The first-half profit of $1.82 billion means the refinery generated substantially more than enough earnings to reverse its previous year’s loss, highlighting how quickly its financial position has changed as production has increased.

Dangote Refinery CEO David Bird said the facility is currently operating at full capacity and that the changes in global energy markets have strengthened the business case for further expansion.

The strong financial performance comes as Dangote prepares for a major expansion. The company plans to invest about $14.3 billion to increase the refinery’s capacity from 700,000 barrels per day to 1.4 million barrels per day by 2029, potentially making it comparable in scale with India’s Jamnagar refinery, currently the world’s largest refining complex.

The expansion is expected to include additional refining and petrochemical facilities, allowing the company to produce a wider range of products and further reduce Nigeria’s reliance on imported refined petroleum products.

The financial turnaround also comes ahead of what is expected to be Africa’s largest-ever IPO. Dangote Refinery plans to offer 4.1 billion shares at ₦525 each, targeting approximately ₦2.15 trillion ($1.63 billion) from investors. The offer is scheduled to run from September 14 to October 13, 2026, with the shares expected to begin trading later in the year.

The IPO is expected to give Nigerian and other African investors an opportunity to own a stake in one of the continent’s largest industrial projects. With the refinery now reporting billions of dollars in revenue and profit, Dangote’s next challenge will be sustaining that performance while financing its ambitious expansion plans.