05/11/2026
Dangote Eyes $17 Billion Mombasa Refinery as Ethiopian Airlines Prioritized for Jet Fuel Amid Iran War
May 11, 2026
Africa's wealthiest industrialist, Aliko Dangote, is leaning toward building a massive 650,000-barrel-a-day oil refinery in Kenya's port city of Mombasa at an estimated cost of $15 billion to $17 billion, marking a strategic shift in his East African expansion plans, according to an interview with the Financial Times published May 10, 2026.
Dangote told the FT he is leaning toward Mombasa because "Mombasa has a much larger, deeper port" compared to Tanga, the proposed Tanzanian site for the refinery. "Kenyans consume more. It's a bigger economy," he said, adding that crude oil could be transported by ship and need not be located near the planned pipeline carrying oil nearly 1,500 kilometers from Ugandan oilfields to the Tanzanian coast.
The announcement follows diplomatic friction between Kenya and Tanzania, with Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan complaining angrily to her Kenyan counterpart William Ruto that she had not been consulted over the earlier plan to build the refinery on her country's coastline.
The FT report highlighted that Dangote's existing $20 billion refinery in Lagos, the world's largest single-train facility at 650,000 barrels per day, has become a critical lifeline during the Iran war. The plant has hit full capacity just as other countries struggle to access petrol, diesel, and jet fuel because most ships cannot transit the Strait of Hormuz.
Unlike several other African countries, including Ethiopia, which have had to ration fuel or dilute it, Nigeria has seen no lines at petrol stations. Dangote's refinery has been able to divert jet fuel, at hefty premiums, to European airlines scrambling for supplies. Crucially, he has also "prioritised sales to Ethiopian Airlines, by far Africa's most important carrier, with a network that covers the entire continent".
Since the Middle East crisis began on February 28, the Dangote refinery has shipped fuels to 11 African countries. Dangote Group Managing Director David Bird stated last month that "Alhaji Aliko Dangote is absolutely unequivocal that it is Africa first. And we're proud to have done a direct delivery to Ethiopian Airlines".
The FT report noted that the Iran war and the resulting closure of the Strait of Hormuz has been "payday" for Dangote's business, with fertiliser prices doubling and margins on jet fuel widening significantly. Dangote told the FT: "You can see all the other oil companies, their profitability has doubled. So you don't expect us to do less".
The refinery is also a major exporter of urea fertiliser to the rest of the continent, with Nigeria absorbing only a fraction of its 3-million-tonne annual capacity. The development comes as Ethiopia grapples with fuel supply disruptions and rising prices.
The country recently restored diesel supply to 9 million litres per day after weeks of shortages, while fuel prices more than doubled in early May, with kerosene and jet fuel jumping from around 150 birr to over 320 birr per liter.
Dangote said he was already pressing ahead with plans to more than double the capacity at his Lagos refinery to 1.4 million barrels per day within 30 months, stating that "we'll be price movers in the market". "The ball is in the hands of President Ruto," he said of the Kenya project. "Whatever President Ruto says is what I'll do".
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