Niger plans West Africa’s third-largest refinery with $1.9 billion project as it targets regional energy hub status

The agreement, signed on August 15 between Niger and Zimar Group and its partner High Tech, covers the design, financing, construction, operation and eventual transfer of the refinery to the Nigerien government under a build-operate-transfer structure.

The project is expected to take three years to construct and will operate for 13 years before being transferred to the state.

At 100,000 barrels per day, the planned facility would rank among West Africa’s largest refining projects by capacity once fully operational, behind the 700,000-bpd Dangote Refinery in Nigeria and Ghana’s 120,000-bpd Sentuo Oil Refinery.

The Dosso project marks a significant expansion of Niger’s refining ambitions.

The country currently has the 20,000-bpd Zinder refinery, operated by Société de Raffinage de Zinder (SORAZ). The new facility would have five times that capacity and could allow Niger to move beyond exporting crude towards supplying refined petroleum products to domestic and regional markets.

The agreement also includes pipelines, storage facilities and a wider petrochemical complex, creating the potential for an industrial hub rather than simply another refinery.

Zimar Group CEO Benjamin Day Marc said the company plans to develop the infrastructure needed to support the refinery and create thousands of direct and indirect jobs, with a focus on training Nigerien workers.

He also said the refinery would process Nigerien crude for domestic consumption and that surplus petroleum products could be supplied to neighbouring countries.

That regional ambition is particularly significant for Niger, which is landlocked and relies heavily on external supply chains for fuel.

The project builds on a memorandum of understanding signed between Niger and Zimar in October 2024. At the time, the proposed refinery was also described as having a 100,000-bpd capacity, with earlier plans indicating that development could be phased.

The latest agreement moves the project beyond the earlier MOU into a formal PPP/BOT framework, although financing remains a major milestone.

The Nigerien government has given the consortium four months to mobilise financing and complete detailed engineering. Financial close is expected within 12 months.

Those deadlines will be closely watched because the $1.9 billion project still requires the private-sector partners to secure the capital needed to move from agreement to construction.

The refinery is part of Niger’s broader push to extract greater value from its growing petroleum sector.

Niger began exporting crude through the Niger-Benin oil pipeline in 2024, opening a new route for its oil to international markets. The country is now seeking to develop more downstream capacity so that a larger share of the value generated from its petroleum resources remains within the country.

The Dosso project could eventually strengthen Niger’s position within the Alliance of Sahel States, particularly if it can supply refined products to neighbouring Burkina Faso and Mali, both of which are also landlocked and face significant energy and logistics challenges.

For Niger’s military-led government, the project also fits its stated policy of diversifying international economic partnerships and transforming natural resources domestically.

If financing is secured and construction proceeds as planned, the Dosso refinery would represent one of the biggest industrial investments in Niger’s history and could significantly alter the country’s position in the West African energy market.

For now, however, the next test is financing: the project has moved from an MOU to a formal agreement, but its transformation into a 100,000-bpd refinery will depend on whether the consortium can meet the government’s financial-close deadline.