By Kunle Odusola-Stevenson
Africa stands at a defining moment in the evolution of its energy economy.
For decades, the continent has exported crude while importing a substantial share of the refined petroleum products needed to power its transport systems, industries, businesses and households. This structural imbalance has transferred significant economic value outside the continent, while leaving African economies exposed to global supply disruptions, freight costs, price volatility and foreign-exchange pressures.
That equation is beginning to change.
Across the continent, refining is returning to the centre of the energy-security, investment and industrialisation conversation. APPO’s current continental agenda seeks to raise Africa’s autonomy in refined petroleum products to 60–70% by 2035, while its emerging regional refining-hub proposition targets 3 million barrels per day of refining production across Africa by 2035.
This is bigger than refining.
It is about where energy value is created, how African markets connect with one another, where capital is deployed, and whether the continent can convert its natural resources into productive industries, jobs, investment and prosperity.
NIGERIA AT A GLOBAL AND CONTINENTAL INFLECTION POINT
For Nigeria, the moment is particularly consequential.
The country has long been a significant crude-producing nation, yet its economy has historically remained heavily dependent on imported refined petroleum products. The emergence of major new domestic refining capacity is changing that equation—and potentially repositioning Nigeria from predominantly supplying crude to global markets to becoming a major processor, market and supplier of refined petroleum products within Africa.
But the opportunity cannot be measured by refinery capacity alone.
Nigeria must secure reliable crude supply, sustain competitive refinery economics, mobilise capital, modernise infrastructure, strengthen logistics and maritime capacity, develop efficient markets and build the industrial linkages capable of turning refined products into wider economic activity.
That is where the Nigerian opportunity meets the African opportunity.
A competitive Nigerian refining sector can strengthen West African energy security, deepen intra-African petroleum trade, create demand across shipping, ports, storage, finance, insurance, technology and engineering, and provide the energy and feedstock required for wider industrial development.
At the same time, Nigeria will operate within an increasingly competitive global refining environment, where scale, crude flexibility, technology, efficiency, financing, logistics, product quality and market access increasingly determine commercial success. The global outlook also points to the need for additional refining capacity in Africa and highlights financing and technical execution as important requirements for delivering it.
THE 2035 QUESTION
The question before Africa is therefore not simply:
How much more can we refine?
It is:
Can Africa build the refining capacity, markets, infrastructure and investment architecture required to meet a substantially greater share of its own petroleum-product needs, trade competitively across borders and retain more value from its natural resources by 2035?
And for Nigeria:
Can the country become one of the principal engines of that continental refining transformation?
These questions give the 3rd Nigeria Oil Refining Summit (NORS) 2026 its strategic relevance.
Under the theme:
REFINING FOR VALUE: Linking Upstream Supply to Downstream Demand
NORS 2026, hosted by the Crude Oil Refinery-Owners Association of Nigeria (CORAN) and produced by The Legend & Legacy Company Ltd, brings the global, continental and Nigerian refining conversation into one platform.
The summit moves beyond the celebration of new capacity to confront the practical issues that will determine whether this transformation succeeds: crude availability, refinery economics, capital, infrastructure, technology, logistics, market competitiveness, regional trade and industrialisation.
Because the ultimate test of Africa’s refining renaissance is not simply the number of barrels processed.
It is the economic value those barrels create for African people, businesses, investors and economies.
Africa has an opportunity to move from exporting resources to processing more, trading more, building more and creating more value at home.
NORS 2026 provides a platform to confront how Nigeria—and Africa—can make that transition commercially viable, strategically resilient and economically transformative.
Kunle Odusola-Stevenson is the
CEO, The Legend & Legacy Company Ltd &
Event Producer, Nigeria Oil Refining Summit (NORS) 2026
