Niger signs $1.9 billion deal with Canada’s Zimar Group to build refinery and petrochemical complex in Dosso

Niger signed a $1.9 billion, 16-year agreement with Canada’s Zimar Group and its partner High Tech on August 15, 2026, to finance, design, build, and operate a new refinery and petrochemical complex in Dosso. Once complete, the facility is set to become the third-largest refinery in West Africa.

Niger and Zimar Group sign $1.9 billion refinery agreement

The deal came together on August 15, 2026, bringing in the government of Niger, Canada’s Zimar Group, and partner firm High Tech. It’s structured as a build-operate-transfer arrangement—a private developer finances and runs the facility, then hands it over to the state once the operational period ends.

The 16-year timeline splits into two phases: a three-year construction period where Zimar Group and High Tech design and build the complex, followed by a 13-year operational phase before full ownership transfers to Niger’s government. At that point, the state inherits a fully functioning, revenue-generating asset—without having built it from scratch. The total project value sits at $1.9 billion, covering financing, design, construction, and operational costs across the life of the agreement.

Plans also include pipelines, storage facilities, and petrochemical infrastructure—a broader scope that suggests Niger is thinking past simple fuel production.

Why Niger is investing in domestic refining capacity

Right now, Niger’s refining setup is pretty thin. The country runs just one operational refinery—the Zinder facility—which can process only 20,000 barrels per day. For a country sitting on crude oil reserves, that’s a real bottleneck.

But it’s not just about capacity. When you export crude oil, you’re selling a raw commodity. Refined products—diesel, gasoline, jet fuel—capture more of the supply chain and earn more per barrel. Niger currently sits at the low end of that equation, and expanding domestic refining is part of a broader national push to move up the petroleum value chain.

Instead of shipping crude out and importing refined products back in, Niger wants to process more of what it extracts at home. The Dosso project is a direct expression of that goal. Plans also include pipelines, storage facilities, and petrochemical infrastructure—a broader scope that suggests Niger is thinking past simple fuel production. Petrochemicals feed into plastics, fertilizers, and industrial materials, opening up additional revenue streams beyond refined fuels.

Dosso facility to increase Niger’s refining capacity fivefold

The numbers are hard to ignore. The Dosso refinery is expected to process 100,000 barrels per day once operational—five times the capacity of the existing Zinder refinery. That’s not a modest upgrade. It’s a structural shift in what Niger can actually do with its own hydrocarbons.

With that expanded capacity, Niger won’t just meet domestic demand more effectively; it’ll be positioned to export refined petroleum products to regional and international markets. That’s a meaningful change in economic posture. The build-operate-transfer structure adds another dimension: after 13 years of operation, full ownership passes to Niger’s government, giving the state control of a 100,000 bpd refinery without having fronted construction costs upfront. Whether that plays out as planned will depend on how the operational phase unfolds.

Dosso refinery in the context of West Africa’s refining landscape

West Africa’s refining sector has been pulling in more investment lately, as regional governments look to capture more value from their hydrocarbon resources rather than exporting crude and importing finished products. The Dosso project fits squarely into that trend.

Once complete, the facility will rank as the third-largest refinery in West Africa—behind Nigeria’s Dangote Refinery, which has a reported capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, and Ghana’s Sentuo Oil Refinery, which processes around 120,000 bpd. At 100,000 bpd, Dosso is competitive. Not the region’s biggest, but a serious player.

Zimar Group’s involvement, alongside High Tech, brings international financing and technical expertise into the mix. Projects at this scale need both the capital to get built and the operational know-how to run efficiently over years—one without the other tends to stall. For Niger specifically, the Dosso complex represents one of the largest infrastructure investments in the country’s recent history, arriving at a moment when Niger is working to assert greater control over its natural resources and build the downstream industries that can translate oil wealth into broader economic gains.

Niger signed a $1.9 billion, 16-year agreement with Canada’s Zimar Group and partner High Tech on August 15, 2026, to build and operate a refinery and petrochemical complex in Dosso. The facility will have a processing capacity of 100,000 barrels per day—five times that of Niger’s existing Zinder refinery. Upon completion of the build-operate-transfer period, the facility passes to state ownership. Once operational, the Dosso complex will rank as West Africa’s third-largest refinery, behind Nigeria’s Dangote Refinery and Ghana’s Sentuo Oil Refinery.

Kelly Lippke

Kelly is an experienced writer with 15 years of experience exploring the big stories that shape our world, from tech breakthroughs and space exploration to climate, energy, and the fascinating quirks of science. She has a talent for turning complex ideas into sharp, memorable insights that stay with readers long after they’ve finished reading.