By Sully Manope, in Owerri
The Nigerian refiner, Waltersmith Petroman, is planning to include Jet Fuel among the products of its 10,000Barrels Per Stream Day refinery, to take advantage of the captive market.
The company is working through the international certification of the Jet Fuel unit and expects to introduce the product into the market by the fourth quarter of 2026.
Waltersmith’s move signals an opportunity taking, of the surging profits in the Jet Fuel business, especially for manufacturers located outside the gridlock created by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz in the Middle East.
Even before the supply chain crisis brought on by the closure, the Jet Fuel market was predicted to grow from $222.44Billion in 2026 to $276.1Bllion by 2030 with a 5.6% CAGR, driven by factors such as sustainable aviation fuel mandates, the proliferation of low-cost carriers, modernization and expansion of airline fleets of aircraft with increasing air passenger traffic, and the surge of unmanned aerial vehicles.
Jet Fuel is arguably one of the most commercially vital and highly profitable business lines for the Dangote Refinery, which has capitalized on global Jet Fuel shortages. The facility produces roughly 24Million Litres of Jet Fuel daily, exporting the bulk of this volume globally, with shipments heading to the Americas, Saudi Aramco, and Europe. Dangote supplies Nigeria’s domestic airlines (with a total demand of roughly 2.1Million Litres per day), so Waltersmith may simply look abroad. The company already exports Naptha and so could simply add Jet Fuel to its foreign exchange earners. Company officials did not respond to our inquiry.
Waltersmith’s two-train plant, located in Ibigwe, in the eastern flank of the Niger Delta basin, is the second largest modular refinery after Aradel Holdings’ 11,000BPSD facility in Ogbele, near Port Harcourt, the leading commercial city in the Niger Delta. Waltersmith’s Refinery currently produces Automotive Gas Oil (AGO / Diesel), Kerosene, Naphtha and Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO / HPFO). In March 2026, it supplied 246,000 Litres of Diesel per day into the Nigerian market, according to the Nigerian Midstream Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Agency (NMDPRA). In April 2026, the company supplied 254,000Litres of Diesel per day into the market, the agency reported. NMDPRA does not report volumes of sales of other products of these small refineries.
Jet Fuel (Jet A-1) is typically produced by isolating and severely upgrading the kerosene fraction. The production sequence spans three primary operations: fractional distillation, hydro treating (to remove impurities), and chemical sweetening.
Aradel Holdings reported a historically high output of 1,062,000Litres per day (L/d) of products from its Ogbele refinery in eastern Nigeria in March 2026, reflecting a 67% jump Month-on-Month compared with February 2026 production. The share of diesel in the mix was 355,681L/d for March 2026, but the company sold. In April 2026, Aradel’s overall production fell by 44% to 575,000Litres, per day featuring 185,121 Litres per day of Diesel. In that month, it sold 213,000Litres per day in the Nigerian market, the NMDPRA said.
