Europe’s jet fuel supply chain now runs, in part, through Lagos. Germany’s Foreign Affairs Minister Johann Wadephul confirmed during a four-day African tour that European fuel markets have begun sourcing refined petroleum products from Nigeria’s Dangote Refinery, a development that is reshaping how the continent supplies global energy demand.
The numbers are concrete. In June alone, 25 percent of jet fuel shipments to Europe originated from Nigeria. Wadephul made the disclosure in Lagos, where he also met with entrepreneurs, creatives, filmmakers, influencers and students, and he did not frame it as a ceiling. “But we can do significantly more,” he said, signaling Germany’s appetite for expanded fuel imports from the region. The confirmation that Europe has already begun purchasing from the Dangote Refinery, Africa’s largest oil refinery, shows how quickly Nigerian energy infrastructure is reordering continental trade flows, particularly as tensions around the Strait of Hormuz continue to disrupt global markets.
Additional reference context is available at https://africa.businessinsider.com/local/markets/german-foreign-minister-confirms-europe-imports-fuel-from-dangote-refinery-during/p4qspny.
Wadephul’s characterization of Nigeria extended well beyond fuel. He described the country as “an economic powerhouse” driven by its large domestic market, abundant resources and growing influence in global affairs. “I view Nigeria as some kind of a powerhouse, a striving nation, growing faster and faster and with a lot of creative ideas,” he said. Germany currently exports machinery, chemicals and food products to Nigeria, while energy and raw materials anchor bilateral trade.
By contrast, the South Africa leg of the tour surfaced a different kind of partnership, one already deeply embedded. South Africa’s Minister of International Relations Ronald Lamola noted that approximately 600 German companies operate in the country, employing roughly 100,000 people. In April 2026, the two nations upgraded their relationship to a Strategic Partnership and adopted a Joint Action Plan covering trade, investment, security and energy transition. Yet Wadephul used his time in Pretoria to criticize South Africa’s exclusion from the next G20 summit, calling the country “an indispensable member of the G20.” Sidelining South Africa, he argued, meant “sidelining an important African voice and a regional economic and political powerhouse,” and served no one’s interests at a moment when global cooperation was essential.
His message to German businesses was blunt. “Anyone not present in Africa today risks missing out on crucial opportunities,” he told reporters, pointing to the continent’s young population and abundant resources. “It would be grossly negligent of us to overlook that.”
The tour reflected Germany’s broader strategic recalibration as it competes with China and Russia for influence across Africa. Wadephul framed Germany and Europe as offering an alternative partnership model for the Global South, built on investment, technology transfer and sustainable development rather than extraction alone. He also pushed for structural change at the global level, stating: “There can be no representative United Nations without permanent African representation on the Security Council.”
The Lagos and Pretoria stops built on earlier German diplomatic engagement, including trips to Ethiopia and Kenya in January and Morocco in April, as Berlin works to deepen its continental footprint systematically. Whether German businesses respond to Wadephul’s urgency with the speed he is demanding remains the open question his tour leaves behind.