By Ajibola Olarinoye
Dangote Refinery and DAPPMAN—basically the big shots in Nigeria’s oil scene—are at each other’s throats over this mind-blowing N1.5 trillion fuel subsidy mess.
Dangote’s $20 billion mega-refinery (the one churning out 650,000 barrels a day) drops a statement basically calling out DAPPMAN for trying to hustle the government into coughing up a ridiculous N1.5 trillion in subsidies. They’re like, “Look, we are not about to jack up our prices just to cover your wild demands, and no way are we handing out some insane subsidy that’s been scamming the government for ages.” Shots fired.
Dangote throws more gasoline on the fire by accusing DAPPMAN of smuggling and sneaking fuel across borders. Seriously, Nigerian oil politics feels like a Netflix crime drama sometimes.
Dangote even flexes their numbers: they exported a whopping 3.2 million metric tonnes of fuel between June and September 2025, while marketers imported even more—almost 3.7 million tonnes. It’s like a fuel arms race out there.
DAPPMAN, obviously not cool with getting dragged like this, fires back hard. They deny everything, threaten to sue, and basically tell Dangote, “Retract your claims in seven days or we’ll see you in court.” They’re not messing around.
They also clap back saying Dangote gives fat $40/MT discounts to foreign traders but leaves Nigerian marketers out in the cold. Talk about double standards. And they want Dangote to cough up actual proof about all this alleged smuggling, otherwise, it’s lawyer-up time.
And just to spice things up, there’s a court order now blocking the oil workers’ union from striking against Dangote due to some alleged anti-labor stuff. Plus, Dangote was in another legal scrap not long ago with DAPPMAN and NNPC about fuel imports, but that case fizzled out back in July 2025.
The whole thing? It’s a circus. If you’re into oil industry soap operas, grab your popcorn. This isn’t ending anytime soon.
