Average daily petrol imports into Nigeria declined by 26 percent in August 2026, falling to 14.6 million litres from 19.7 million litres recorded in July, according to the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA).
The regulator's August 2026 Factsheet, which tracks production, imports, domestic receipts, exports and inventories of petroleum products, showed that the reduction coincided with higher domestic refining output, particularly at the Dangote Refinery.
Diesel imports fell even more sharply, dropping to an average of 1.3 million litres per day in August from 7.9 million litres in July. Liquefied petroleum gas imports, however, rose to 1.3 million litres per day from 0.9 million litres in July.
Average daily receipts of key products stood at 50.5 million litres for petrol, 14.5 million litres for diesel and 3.1 million litres for aviation fuel, while LPG receipts averaged 4.3 kilotonnes per day.
The Dangote Refinery operated at an average capacity utilisation of 105.21 percent during the month, producing 41.94 million litres of petrol, 18.01 million litres of diesel and 24.48 million litres of aviation fuel each day.
For petrol, the refinery recorded domestic receipts of 35.87 million litres daily, exports of 9.73 million litres and closing stock of 360.4 million litres. Diesel receipts averaged 12.37 million litres per day, with exports of 8.75 million litres and closing stock of 137.2 million litres. Aviation fuel exports averaged 21.30 million litres daily against domestic receipts of 3.07 million litres, while closing stock stood at 133.3 million litres at the end of August.
The Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna refineries produced nothing during August. Among modular refineries, Edo Refinery posted the highest utilisation at 90.43 percent, followed by WalterSmith at 64.77 percent, Aradel at 58.77 percent and OPAC at 16.97 percent. WalterSmith produced 0.28 million litres of diesel daily, Aradel 0.31 million litres, OPAC 0.11 million litres and Edo 0.08 million litres.
The latest figures follow a sharp increase in Nigeria's petrol import bill, which climbed 989.4 percent quarter-on-quarter to N952.15 billion in Q2 2026 from N87.40 billion in Q1. The country's petrol import bill had earlier dropped to $10 billion in 2025 from $14.06 billion in 2024 as domestic refining expanded.
