Aliko Dangote, Africa's richest man, has signed a major equipment procurement deal with XCMG, one of China's largest heavy machinery and construction equipment manufacturers, targeting the doubling of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery's current 650,000 barrel-per-day capacity to approximately 1.3 million barrels per day by 2029, a move that would make the Lekki facility the world's single largest crude oil refinery by processing capacity.
The deal, confirmed by Africa.com on June 27, 2026, represents a significant capital commitment to the second phase of the refinery's expansion, which Dangote Group had been signalling to investors and analysts for several months. The partnership with XCMG, whose full name is Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group and which is among the world's ten largest construction and heavy equipment manufacturers by revenue, gives Dangote access to Chinese manufacturing capacity and engineering expertise at a scale and speed that would be difficult to replicate through European or American suppliers at comparable cost.
The refinery, located in the Lekki Free Zone in Lagos and built over more than a decade at a total investment of approximately 25 billion, began operations in early 2024 and has already transformed Nigeria's energy landscape in ways that few industry observers expected to happen so quickly. The facility has pushed Nigeria from net petroleum importer to net petroleum exporter for the first time in decades, supplied more than 95 percent of the country's aviation fuel, exported refined petroleum products to multiple West and Central African markets and delivered jet fuel to European buyers during disruptions to Middle East shipping routes. Dangote has publicly stated that the refinery alone is worth more than 40 billion, a valuation significantly higher than the Bloomberg Billionaires Index's current mark for the asset.
