The Dangote Group has announced a significant step towards expanding its petroleum refinery and petrochemical operations. The group has signed a $400 million construction equipment agreement with XCMG Construction Machinery Company Limited, a Chinese manufacturer, to fast-track the expansion of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery & Petrochemicals. This expansion aims to increase the refinery's capacity from 650,000 barrels per day to 1.4 million barrels per day, positioning it as the largest refinery in the world.

According to a statement released on Monday, February 16, 2026, the agreement will enable the Dangote Group to acquire a wide range of advanced construction equipment to support ongoing and future projects in refining, petrochemicals, agriculture, and large-scale infrastructure development. The new equipment will complement the existing assets deployed for the refinery expansion, which is expected to be completed within three years.

The Dangote Group described this agreement as a strategic investment to deepen its construction footprint and accelerate its ambition to build a $100bn enterprise by 2030. The statement partly read, “The additional equipment we are acquiring under this partnership will significantly enhance execution across our projects. With this investment, we are positioning ourselves to become the number one construction company in the world.”

The expansion program also includes increasing polypropylene production from 900,000 metric tonnes per annum to 2.4 million metric tonnes per annum. Additionally, urea capacity in Nigeria will be tripled from 3 million to 9 million metric tonnes per annum, along with the existing 3 million metric tonnes per annum capacity in Ethiopia. This move will solidify the Group's position as the largest urea producer globally. Furthermore, production capacity for Linear Alkyl Benzene will be increased to 400,000 metric tonnes per annum, making the Group the largest producer in Africa and strengthening supply to the detergent and cleaning agents manufacturing industry. Additional base oil production capacity is also part of the expansion program.

The Dangote refinery recently announced that it had reached its current nameplate capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, giving it the capacity to pump 75 million litres of petrol per day. In January, the refinery supplied over 40 million litres of petrol daily, surpassing importers and taking 62 per cent of the market share for that month.