Dangote Petroleum Refinery Petrochemicals FZE has urged the Court of Appeal in Abuja to grant it permission to problem a latest Federal High Court judgment ordering the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) to proceed to grant petroleum product import licences to three main oil entrepreneurs — Matrix Energy, AA Rano, and AYM Shafa.
This was disclosed in a movement on discover filed by the refinery on October 6, 2026, and completely seen by Nairametrics.
The authorized growth marks the most recent escalation within the dispute over fuel availability, refining, and imports in Nigeria involving main trade stakeholders.
What Dangote Refinery is in search of by the movement
The movement was introduced pursuant to Sections 233(3) and 233(5) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as altered); Section 24 of the Court of Appeal Act (as amended); Order 6, Rules 1 and a couple of of the Court of Appeal Rules, 2021; and the inherent jurisdiction of the court docket.
According to Section 24 of the Court of Appeal Act (as amended), throughout the listening to of an enchantment, the Court of Appeal might train any energy that would have been exercised by the court docket beneath or order the case to be retried by a court docket of competent jurisdiction.
The refinery’s authorized staff is in search of an order “granting the applicant leave to appeal as an interested party against the judgment delivered on September 28, 2026, by Justice Inyang E. Ekwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja Judicial Division, in Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/1363/2026, between Matrix Energy Ltd and two others and the NMDPRA.”
The refinery is in search of to overturn the Federal High Court judgment.
Background to the import licence dispute
Nairametrics previously reported that Justice Inyang Ekwo had ordered the NMDPRA to proceed granting petroleum product import licences to the three main oil entrepreneurs consistent with related legal guidelines.
Justice Ekwo made the order in his judgment on Monday, holding that the NMDPRA’s refusal to subject licences to the three oil entrepreneurs was in “direct non-compliance” with the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
Among different reliefs, the plaintiffs had sought a declaration that the Petroleum Industry Act, 2021, doesn’t outlaw or ban the importation of petroleum merchandise into Nigeria, nor does it preclude or prohibit the NMDPRA from granting licences to eligible importers or renewing such licences for the importation of petroleum merchandise into the nation.
In delivering his judgment, the decide held that the actions of the NMDPRA “are in direct non-compliance with the PIA”, including that the authority was performing past the provisions of the regulation by failing to subject import licences.
He additional held that the “consequence of non-compliance” with the PIA and related legal guidelines rendered any train of authority in respect of import licences “null and void”.
The decide subsequently dominated that the plaintiffs had efficiently established their declare in opposition to the NMDPRA, including that the case succeeded on its deserves.
Nigeria’s altering petrol import dynamics
The newest authorized transfer comes after studies from the NMDPRA confirmed that Nigeria’s petrol imports dropped sharply within the first quarter of 2026, as provide from native refineries climbed to about 3.18 billion litres.
This is just not the primary time Dangote Refinery has challenged fuel import licences issued by the NMDPRA.
In 2025, the refinery filed an identical go well with in search of to nullify fuel import licences granted to NNPC Ltd, AYM Shafa Ltd, AA Rano Ltd, T. Time Petroleum Ltd, 2015 Petroleum Ltd, and Matrix Petroleum Services Ltd.
However, in July 2025, Dangote Refinery unexpectedly withdrew the lawsuit, informing the court docket: “Take notice that the plaintiff herein discontinues this suit against the defendants forthwith.”
Nigeria has traditionally depended closely on imported petrol due to the poor efficiency of state-owned refineries over a number of a long time.
However, the emergence of Dangote Refinery, broadly thought to be Africa’s largest single-train refinery, has considerably altered the nation’s fuel provide dynamics.
