Dangote Plans Multi-Exchange Listing for 650,000 Bpd Refinery

The head of the Nairobi Securities Exchange Plc says that Aliko Dangote wants to sell shares in his oil-refining company on several African stock exchanges.

According to FirstCap Chief Executive Officer Ukandu Ukandu, Dangote hired Stanbic IBTC Capital Ltd., Vetiva Advisory Services Ltd., and FirstCap Ltd. to help with the IPO for Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals Fze.

Frank Mwiti, CEO of the Nairobi exchange, said after a meeting last week between the heads of African exchanges and billionaire Dangote in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, “The plan is to structure a pan-African IPO.”

A representative from the Dangote Group told Bloomberg that the meeting between exchange officials did happen, but they would not give any more information.

The sale of shares on several African exchanges would be a first for the continent. It will help make equity markets in Nigeria and other countries where it lists more stable. Nigeria is about to return to the FTSE Russell frontier-markets benchmark.

The report said that Dangote wants to increase the refinery’s capacity to 1.4 million barrels per day over the next three years, making it compete with Mukesh Ambani’s facility in India.

The refinery that Dangote owns can currently process 650,000 barrels of oil every day. Last month, the African Export-Import Bank said it had backed $2.5 billion of a $4 billion syndicated facility meant to help expand the refinery.

Dangote plans to spend at least $40 billion over the next five years to boost growth. This includes expanding the facility, quadrupling fertilizer production, and more than doubling the capacity of its oil refinery.

Aside from Nigeria, the plant has been selling refined fuel to other African countries that are having trouble getting gasoline and diesel because of the US-Israel war on Iran.

A spokesman for the Nigerian exchange said that Dangote, the chairman of the refinery, met with officials from the Nigerian Exchange Group and member organizations of the African Securities Exchanges Association earlier this month to talk about how to let investors take part in the IPO across African markets.

The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has also told upstream oil and gas companies to use standardized reporting templates and switch to measurement-based systems for methane and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This is part of the country’s efforts to improve transparency and meet its climate commitments.

The Commission Chief Executive, Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, said in a policy directive that operators must set up reliable Measurement, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) practices for emissions inventories, as required by the 2022 Guidelines for the Management of Methane and Greenhouse Gases in the upstream sector.

The directive comes at a time when there is more and more pressure on fossil fuel producers around the world to do something real to keep warming to 1.5°C, especially by cutting down on methane emissions, which are a very powerful greenhouse gas.

NUPRC said that since 2022, operators have had to measure emissions using the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Tier 1 method, with a planned move to more advanced methods. By the third quarter of 2026, companies must at least use Tier 2 methods, and by January 2027, they must fully switch to Tier 3 or another high-level measurement-based system.

The commission said that operators can still follow other recognized standards like OGMP 2.0, API, and ISO as long as their submissions meet its requirements. This is because the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) framework is still the baseline for reporting under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The regulator says the move is based on seeing technical capacity problems and gaps in MRV infrastructure across the industry. It said that targeted workshops and guidance sessions had been held to help operators gain the skills they needed for the transition.

The commission said that Nigeria’s climate goals, such as reaching net-zero emissions by 2060, stopping routine gas flaring by 2030, and cutting methane emissions by 60% by 2035, need a strong, science-based, and verifiable emissions accounting system.

To make sure that everyone is doing things the same way, operators must now use the required templates for Greenhouse Gas Emissions Management Plans (GHGEMP) and detailed inventories of methane and GHG emissions. The commission said that all submissions, which take effect right away, must be based on evidence, clear, and follow MRV principles.

The NUPRC also said that the changes are meant to make Nigeria’s energy and carbon markets more trustworthy, make the upstream sector more attractive to climate-aligned investors, and make the country more accountable.

The commission said again that it would keep helping the industry by building up its skills, giving it technical advice, and putting in place the right MRV infrastructure.

To make sure that the upstream MRV and emission inventories are all the same, operators must follow the guidance templates for the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Management Plan (GHGEMP) and the Reporting of Methane and GHG Emissions Accounting and Inventories.

“All submissions to the Commission, which will take effect right away, must follow the templates on the NUPRC website and be verifiable, open, and based on evidence, as required by MRV principles.

The commission said, “These steps are meant to make accountability stronger, make Nigeria more credible in global markets, and open up climate-smart investors for the upstream sector.”