Nigeria’s refining industry is drawing fresh scrutiny from capital markets as the Dangote Petroleum Refinery advances toward a public listing, intensifying pressure on regulators and oil producers to guarantee the crude supply refiners need to operate at scale.
The question of how Africa’s top oil producer converts new refining capacity into durable economic value will dominate the Nigeria Oil Refining Summit 2026, set for Sept. 28-30 at Eko Hotels and Suites in Lagos.
The gathering, themed ‘Refining for Value: Linking Upstream Supply to Downstream Demand,’ is hosted by the Crude Oil Refinery-Owners Association of Nigeria and produced by The Legend and Legacy Company Ltd.
The summit arrives as the Dangote refinery’s move toward an initial public offering pulls global investors deeper into a sector long defined by fuel imports and idle state-owned plants.
Organisers say that shift has reframed refining as an asset class rather than just an infrastructure project, raising the stakes for Nigeria to prove the economics behind its refining buildout can hold up under investor scrutiny.
‘The Dangote IPO has brought capital markets squarely into the refining conversation,’ said Kunle Odusola-Stevenson, event director of NORS and chief executive officer of The Legend and Legacy Company Ltd. ‘NORS 2026 will take that conversation further by examining how Nigeria can attract capital, strengthen commercial linkages and convert refining capacity into lasting economic value.’
At the centre of that conversation is crude supply – the input refiners say remains their biggest operational risk. Nigeria has installed substantial new refining capacity in recent years, but without predictable, commercially priced feedstock from domestic producers, that capacity cannot consistently translate into output, energy security or foreign-exchange savings, according to summit organisers.
The issue will anchor the summit’s opening session, ‘Guaranteeing Crude Supply for Domestic Refining: From Policy to Commercial Reality,’ which will gather upstream producers, refiners and regulators to work through crude availability, pricing, supply security and the regulatory terms that shape investment decisions.
Confirmed speakers include Adegbite Falade, chairman of the Independent Petroleum Producers Group, and Matthew Bouyer, chairman of the Oil Producers Trade Section, alongside senior representatives from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, Seplat Energy, Renaissance Africa Energy, Aradel Holdings, Dangote Refinery, Pillar Oil and NNPC Ltd.
Organisers frame the summit’s task plainly: Nigeria already has the refining capacity; what it needs now is the commercial architecture to make that capacity pay off. That means linking crude producers to refiners, refiners to fuel markets, and capital to projects investors consider bankable, while building out the infrastructure needed to support industrial growth around the refining sector.
The three-day event will bring together refiners, upstream producers, regulators, investors, development finance institutions, traders and infrastructure providers, positioning NORS 2026 as a barometer of how far Nigeria’s refining ambitions have moved from installed capacity toward an investable, integrated industry.