By Radarr Africa Business Desk
LAGOS, October 31 (Radarr Africa) – Botswana is in talks with Nigerian industrialist Aliko Dangote, Angola and Ivory Coast to widen its fuel supply, Minister of Minerals and Energy Bogolo Kenewendo said in an interview in Gaborone, as the government looks for new sources after an oil price spike exposed how thin its reserves are.
Billionaires.Africa, which reported the interview, said Kenewendo described the aim as avoiding fuel insecurity and shortages. The report did not disclose volumes or prices for any supply from Dangote, and it carried no direct quotes from the minister.
Botswana has no proven crude reserves and no refinery. It imports all of its refined fuel, about 1.3 billion litres a year, mostly through South Africa, the report said. The government is setting up routes through Mozambique and Namibia, which need coastal storage at both ends, and is also considering a pipeline Dangote proposed from a terminal at Walvis Bay, Namibia.
In a separate supply track, OQ Trading, the trading arm of Oman’s state energy group OQ, delivered about 20 million litres of diesel to Botswana Oil Limited at Matola, Mozambique, on October 9. The report described this as the first cargo under agreements signed in November 2025 and expanded in April 2026, when President Duma Boko visited Muscat. Botswana has also opened talks on a stake of up to 30% in an Angolan refinery and on buying fuel directly from Sonangol, Angola’s state oil company.
The urgency stems from March. The report said a war involving Iran threatened tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, Brent crude peaked at $119.50 a barrel on March 9 and diesel prices nearly doubled. On March 26 the government said strategic stocks covered about 10.5 days of demand and commercial stocks another 24 days, and that the National Petroleum Fund could no longer cushion pump prices. It plans to raise state storage to 152.5 million litres, or about 46 days, and eventually to 102 days once a large depot at Tshele Hills is built.
Dangote’s southern African plans are already under way, according to the report. Dangote Industries Namibia is seeking approval for a Walvis Bay terminal that would hold about 1.6 million barrels of petrol and diesel for Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and southern Congo. It held its first public consultation on September 23, and a full environmental assessment is still required before construction. In September, Dangote said the group would build a pipeline of about 2,650 kilometres starting in Namibia, with one line through Botswana into South Africa and another through Zimbabwe and Zambia to Congo.
His refinery near Lagos processes about 700,000 barrels of crude a day, the report said. In March, 12 cargoes carrying 456,000 tonnes of refined products left for Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Tanzania, Ghana and Togo. In East Africa, the group bought a 24.76% stake in Kenya Pipeline Company for about $327 million, the report said.
There is a link to the refinery’s share sale. The Botswana Stock Exchange was chosen as the single venue for southern African investors in the offer, which closed on October 27, with Access Bank Botswana issuing the depositary receipts. The refinery aimed to raise about $500 million there, mainly from Botswana’s pension funds, and sold 4.1 billion new shares at N525 each in total, raising about N2.15 trillion ($1.58 billion). Dangote visited Botswana on October 14 to promote the offer.
Most of the supply details in the report are attributed generally to the government or the company. Kenewendo is the only named source, and the figures have not been independently confirmed by Radarr Africa.
