Nigeria is taking the lead as Africa moves to boost its refining capacity with 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) by 2030.
According to the newly released 2025 OPEC World Oil Outlook, the expansion will mark one of the fastest downstream expansions globally.
This medium-term growth – led by landmark projects in Nigeria, Angola and Uganda – signals a turning point for the continent’s energy sovereignty and investment attractiveness.
At the forefront of Africa’s refining expansion is Nigeria’s 650,000-bpd Dangote Refinery, which began operations in 2024 and is already reshaping regional fuel trade dynamics.
Further developments include the 200,000-bpd Akwa Ibom Refinery, also in Nigeria, and Angola’s state-driven push to bring online the 200,000-bpd Lobito Refinery and 100,000-bpd Soyo Refinery by 2030.
The report noted that Uganda’s refining ambitions are taking shape with a 60,000-bpd facility in Hoima, part of the country’s broader Lake Albert basin development plan.
Meanwhile, modular refinery projects in Ghana, Guinea-Conakry, the Republic of Congo and additional sites in Nigeria are enabling incremental but scalable capacity builds in markets where infrastructure and financing hurdles persist.
In North Africa, Algeria (Hassi Messaoud), Libya (Ubari) and Egypt (Soukhna) are all advancing refinery projects aimed at capturing higher margins, improving domestic supply security and reducing dependency on imports of refined petroleum products.
OPEC pointed out in the report that Africa will need over $40 billion in refining investments by 2030 to meet its mid-decade objectives.
Beyond 2030, the figure climbs steeply – requiring an additional $60+ billion for refinery construction, modernization and secondary processing capacity upgrades. This opens a $100 billion investment window for project developers, institutional investors, sovereign wealth funds and energy-focused private equity. With nearly 86% of global refinery additions through 2050 concentrated in the Asia-
Pacific, Africa and the Middle East, Africa is increasingly seen as a high-growth frontier.
Additionally, Africa’s rising domestic consumption of crude – forecast to reach 4.5 million bpd by 2050 from just 1.8 million bpd in 2024 – further underlines the case for investing in downstream infrastructure. This consumption shift, in turn, is expected to reduce Africa’s crude exports by over one million bpd by 2050, emphasizing a structural pivot toward internal value chains.