A Federal High Court in Lagos has extended an order barring Nigeria’s petroleum regulator from entering, sealing or otherwise interfering with Aliko Dangote’s oil refinery, four days before the company opens the largest share sale in African history.

Justice Akintayo Aluko extended the order on Wednesday, Sept. 9, after the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority asked him to discharge it. The regulator argued the refinery had obtained it by misrepresenting facts and withholding material information, and challenged whether the judge had jurisdiction to grant it in the first place.

The judge declined to discharge it. He ruled that the order made on Aug. 31 would remain in force until the motion on notice is heard and determined, or until the court directs otherwise.

The dispute concerns propane, and specifically whether the regulator has any authority over a refinery sited inside a free zone. Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals FZE opens its offer of 4.1 billion shares at 525 naira each on Monday, Sept. 14, seeking about 2.15 trillion naira, or $1.63 billion.

What the regulator says it found

NMDPRA told the court its action began with laboratory tests on liquefied petroleum gas taken from three plants named as Selai, Tewa and Ameego Pago. The samples allegedly contained more than 50 percent propane. Industry specification puts propane at no more than 20 percent of an LPG blend, with butane making up around 80 percent.

The distinction matters because the two gases behave differently under pressure. The regulator told the court that propane from Dangote and other gas processing facilities carries a vapour pressure of about 13 bar, against a maximum of seven bar for standard propane-butane LPG, and that refilling plants not built for that pressure face an explosion risk.

According to the regulator, the three plants identified their propane source as Sublime Oil and Gas Limited, which buys product from Dangote Refinery. That prompted a wider reconciliation exercise across propane producers and LPG blenders.

NMDPRA alleged that examination of the refinery’s truck-out manifests, the records showing which trucks left with what, revealed significant discrepancies. It said Sublime Oil and Gas lifted 25 trucks of propane on Aug. 20 and 22 for delivery to Navgas and Agasco, and that Navgas confirmed receiving six, leaving 19 unaccounted for. It said records from Delta State showed a second off-taker loaded 52 trucks between May and August 2026 for delivery to Navgas, and that Navgas confirmed none arrived.

The regulator said its officials were denied access when they went to inspect propane loading operations and records at the refinery on Aug. 24. It then issued a notice of potential non-compliance and directed the refinery to suspend propane loading and truck-out pending its investigation.

What Dangote says

Anthony Chiejina, spokesman for the Dangote Group, rejected the regulator’s account, saying NMDPRA officials are stationed at the refinery, inspected the propane and certified it before it left the site.

His argument is that responsibility ends at the gate. The product is bought by independent off-takers who collect it in their own trucks, and what happens to it afterwards is not the refinery’s to control. He called the regulator’s conduct “an absolute abuse of power by NMDPRA” and said it was what drove the company to court.

Chiejina also challenged NMDPRA to produce its own records, arguing that if the regulator had entered the refinery and found blended product there, that would be a different case, but that it had already certified the propane as compliant.

The free zone question underneath it

The narrower argument about propane sits on top of a much larger one about jurisdiction.

The refinery is located in the Lekki Free Zone, within the Dangote Industrial Free Zone. Dangote’s case is that NMDPRA has no regulatory or oversight powers inside free zones at all. The company cited a letter dated March 2, 2026 from the Attorney-General of the Federation which, according to Justice Aluko, stated that the regulator was not entitled to exercise oversight over operations there.

NMDPRA’s position is that its mandate covers midstream and downstream petroleum activity across Nigeria, free zones included, under the Petroleum Industry Act 2021.

That question has consequences well beyond propane. Nigeria’s free zone regime was built to attract industrial investment by exempting occupants from various domestic rules. If the courts confirm that petroleum regulation does not reach inside them, the largest refinery in Africa sits substantially outside the authority of the agency that governs every other fuel producer in the country. If they rule the other way, the refinery’s operations become subject to a regulator it is currently in litigation with.

Timing, and the second case

The order was extended four days before the share offer opens and a month before it closes on Oct. 13. Trading is expected to begin in November.

Justice Aluko was sitting as a vacation judge and said his jurisdiction over the matter ended on Friday, when the court’s annual vacation closes. He declined to set a new hearing date and sent the case file back to the registry for the administrative judge to assign it to a regular court. Wale Akoni, senior advocate of Nigeria and counsel for the refinery, had asked for a short adjournment after being served with the regulator’s counter-affidavit in court that morning. Matthew Burkaa, counsel for NMDPRA, did not oppose the request but pressed the urgency of the safety concerns.

The result is that the refinery operates under court protection with no hearing date fixed.

This is not the only case between the two. Dangote Refinery is separately suing over the issuance and renewal of fuel import licences to NNPC Limited and several petroleum marketers, arguing the licences breached an order made on April 29 requiring the parties to preserve the position as it stood on April 2, 2026.

George Ene-Ita, the NMDPRA spokesman, declined to comment on the proceedings. Senior officials at the agency have indicated its legal team is weighing its next move.