Nine months ago Dangote Petroleum Refinery was still a story about whether a 650,000 barrel plant could run steadily. Its unaudited results to September settle that argument with a number: $4.73bn of net income, against a loss of $117.2m in the same period of 2025.
Revenue climbed 144.5% to $22.48bn from $9.19bn. Spread across 273 days, that is roughly $82m of sales every day. In naira, net income comes to about ₦6.29trn.
The margin is the real story
Plenty of refineries can grow revenue when they push more barrels through. The jump that matters here is profitability. EBITDA rose to $5.52bn from $627.6m, close to nine times higher, and the EBITDA margin widened to 24.56% from 6.83%. Net margin works out at about 21%, which is rich for a business that turns crude into fuel.
The cash tells the same tale. Operating cash flow reached $3.68bn, ten times the $364.7m of a year earlier. Cash on hand rose to $6.69bn from $809.5m, and the balance sheet swung from $1.73bn of net debt to $650.8m of net cash. That is a $2.38bn turnaround in twelve months for a project long defined by how much it had borrowed.
Managing director David Bird described the quarter as the move from commissioning and ramp-up into sustainable commercial operations. The timing helps: the refinery reported running above 700,000 barrels a day for the first time in late September.
Why the timing is not an accident
These numbers land in the middle of the refinery's ₦525 a share IPO, which offers 4.1 billion shares worth roughly ₦2.15trn and now runs to October 27 after a two week extension. A profit figure this size is the strongest sales pitch the offer could ask for, and Aliko Dangote has said subscriptions have already passed the original target.
Two caveats deserve space. The figures are unaudited, and nine strong months of refining margins do not guarantee nine more; fuel spreads can narrow quickly, and much of the upside depends on steady crude supply and naira pricing at home. For Nigerian investors, that means buying a business with a superb year behind it, not a guaranteed annuity.
Dangote has proved its refinery can make serious money at full tilt; the open question for IPO buyers is whether audited full-year numbers, and margins in a softer fuel market, keep the profit near this pace.
Figures are as reported at the time of writing. STATART news is written by Frank Brother (Markets), Christina Amgbari (Insights) and Ebipadei Joseph (Lifestyle), and checked before publication.