Niger has signed a $1.9 billion agreement to develop a 100,000-barrel-per-day oil refinery and petrochemical complex in Dosso, advancing one of the country’s largest industrial projects as the Sahel nation seeks to process substantially more of its crude oil at home.
The agreement involves Zimar Group and High Tech and is structured under a build-operate-transfer model, under which the private partners will develop and operate the facility before transferring it to the Nigerien state. At its planned capacity, the Dosso refinery would transform Niger’s downstream petroleum industry. The country’s existing Zinder refinery, which began operations in 2011, has a processing capacity of about 20,000 barrels per day.
A fully operational 100,000-barrel Dosso facility would therefore increase Niger’s installed refining capacity roughly fivefold from its current level. The project is expected to include more than the refinery itself. Associated infrastructure is planned around petroleum storage and pipelines, while the petrochemical component would allow Niger to move further into processing rather than limiting the project to conventional fuel production.
The latest agreement builds on a project that Niger has been developing for more than two years. In June 2024, the government established a technical committee to oversee plans for a new refinery in Dosso. Authorities initially envisaged a minimum capacity of 100,000 barrels per day, developed in modules to accelerate construction.
Niger subsequently signed a memorandum of understanding with Canadian industrial group Zimar in October 2024 covering the design, financing, construction, commissioning, operation, maintenance and eventual transfer of the refinery and petrochemical complex.
The government allocated a vast 7,877-hectare site for the wider development, with 1,385 hectares earmarked for the refinery and petrochemical complex. Additional land was set aside for a power plant and supporting infrastructure. Plans for the facility have since evolved.
In June 2026, Niger’s Petroleum Minister Hamadou Tini confirmed that the government had decided to replace the originally proposed modular refinery with a conventional refinery, following recommendations from the country’s Petroleum Committee.
The feasibility study was subsequently revised to reflect the new design. That decision suggests Niamey is looking beyond simply increasing fuel production and towards establishing a larger industrial petroleum complex capable of supporting long-term processing and export ambitions. The economics of the project have also changed considerably since Niger became a significant crude oil exporter.
The landlocked country has produced oil commercially since 2011, but the limited capacity of the Zinder refinery historically constrained output. That changed following the completion of the Niger-Benin crude oil pipeline, a nearly 2,000-kilometre export system connecting Niger’s Agadem oilfields to Benin’s Atlantic coast.
The pipeline was designed to dramatically increase Niger’s ability to move crude to international markets, with capacity of about 90,000 barrels per day initially and potential for further expansion. For Niger, however, exporting substantially more crude creates another policy question on how much of that petroleum should leave the country unprocessed. The Dosso project represents part of the government’s answer.
A 100,000-barrel refinery would give Niger the capacity to convert significantly larger quantities of its crude into petrol, diesel and other petroleum products for domestic consumption and export. Nigerien authorities have explicitly linked the refinery to ambitions to supply neighbouring countries, particularly members of the Alliance of Sahel States, which brings together Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali. Niger’s Petroleum Ministry has said the Dosso development is intended both to strengthen domestic energy independence and increase petroleum exports to AES countries and other markets. Geography could make that strategy commercially important.
Both Mali and Burkina Faso are landlocked and depend heavily on imported petroleum products transported over long distances from coastal markets. A major refinery in Niger could create another regional supply source if the necessary road, rail, pipeline and storage infrastructure is developed.
The project also fits a broader economic policy being pursued by Niger’s military-led government under General Abdourahamane Tiani, which has placed greater emphasis on state control of natural resources, domestic processing and reducing dependence on external suppliers.
Oil is increasingly important to that strategy. Niger has substantial petroleum reserves but remains one of the world’s poorer countries, meaning the government’s challenge is to translate rising crude production into public revenue, industrial activity, infrastructure and employment. The Dosso refinery could become one of the clearest tests of that policy. Its proposed capacity is far larger than Niger’s existing domestic fuel requirements, meaning the commercial case will depend heavily on regional exports and reliable crude supply.
Financing, construction execution and associated infrastructure will also determine whether the $1.9 billion agreement progresses from a major investment commitment into an operating industrial complex. Niger has already crossed one important threshold by moving from a small oil producer supplying a single domestic refinery to a crude exporter connected to the Atlantic coast. Dosso represents the next ambition of ensuring that a much larger share of the value created from Nigerien oil is captured inside the country before the finished product crosses its borders.