GlobalData: Africa's Refining Capacity Expansion Accelerates, Nigeria Leads

en.Wedoany.com Reported - GlobalData has released its latest analysis of conventional refinery projects in Africa. According to its Global Conventional Refinery New-Build and Expansion Project Outlook to 2030 (2026 Edition), Africa is expected to become one of the major contributors to global conventional refining capacity additions between 2026 and 2030, with new capacity coming from both greenfield refineries and expansion projects at existing plants. The report covers conventional refining projects scheduled to come online from 2026 to 2030, and breaks down capacity additions by project type, development stage, region, and key countries.

Nigeria is expected to continue leading Africa's refinery project pipeline. The country currently has multiple refining projects at various stages of development, with the Lagos I Crude Distillation Unit (CDU) expansion phase one listed by GlobalData as one of Africa's largest upcoming refinery expansion projects. GlobalData's database previously identified the operator of Lagos I as Dangote Oil Refinery Ltd; the Dangote Refinery currently has a design processing capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, and the company is advancing further capacity expansion.

Algeria and Egypt are also among the regions concentrated with refinery expansion projects in Africa. According to GlobalData, Algeria hosts one of the largest numbers of refinery expansion projects in Africa, with new projects involving not only crude distillation capacity but also secondary processing units at refineries. Among existing projects in Africa, a relatively high proportion are under construction, while the remainder are mainly in the feasibility study and approval stages, meaning some new capacity is expected to come online in the latter part of the forecast period.

In terms of scope, GlobalData's analysis is not limited solely to refinery crude processing capacity. The 2026 edition of the report also tracks expansion projects for major refining units including coking, fluid catalytic cracking, hydrocracking, hydrotreating, alkylation, and reforming, and tallies project counts, investment costs, capacity additions, development stages, and distribution across key countries. The report was released on July 24, spans 42 pages, and covers the forecast period from 2026 to 2030.

In terms of regional rankings, GlobalData projected in a same-series analysis released on August 24 that Asia will maintain its leading position in global conventional refining capacity additions and the number of upcoming projects from 2026 to 2030, with India and China as the main contributors in the region. Therefore, the accurate characterization of this Africa-focused analysis is that the region is "one of the world's major sources of new capacity additions," rather than the world's largest contributor of new capacity.