Senegal turns to Turkey for up to $3.5 billion refinery push as it targets West Africa’s fuel market

The Société Africaine de Raffinage (SAR), Senegal’s state refiner, signed a memorandum of understanding with Yamata in New York on 23 September, during the United Nations General Assembly. President Bassirou Diomaye Faye attended the signing.

The proposed new refinery would process four million tonnes of crude a year and is estimated to cost $2 billion to $3 billion. Modernising SAR’s refinery at Mbao, near Dakar, carries a separate estimated cost of $300 million to $500 million.

Together, the estimates put the programme at $2.3 billion to $3.5 billion. They are projected costs, not an announcement that Yamata has already raised or invested that amount.

From producing crude to making fuel

Senegal joined Africa’s oil-producing countries when Woodside Energy began output from the offshore Sangomar field in June 2024.

Sangomar crude first reached SAR’s existing refinery in February 2025, but the country still relies on imported petroleum products to meet part of its fuel needs. SAR says its Mbao plant processes about 180 tonnes of crude an hour and covers roughly half of national hydrocarbon needs.

That gap explains the ambition behind the second plant. It is intended to handle Sangomar crude as well as other grades, supplying Senegal first and potentially leaving fuel for neighbouring markets.

A refinery capable of processing four million tonnes annually would be substantially larger than the existing Mbao operation, though the proposed capacity would become meaningful only if the plant is financed, built and supplied with crude.

The project also includes proposed petrochemical activity. SAR forecasts more than 15,000 direct jobs during construction, a projection that depends on the project proceeding; it is not a count of permanent refinery positions.

The financing test

Under the arrangement described by Senegal’s presidency, Yamata would handle engineering, procurement and construction and seek financing from its partners without a sovereign guarantee from Senegal.

That detail matters for a country working to restore debt sustainability. On 1 September, the International Monetary Fund announced a staff-level agreement on a proposed $2.2 billion programme for Senegal, which still requires further approvals and financing assurances.

The New York signing advances discussions that were already under way. Senegal’s prime minister’s office⁠ identified Yamata in August 2025 as a prospective financing and implementation partner for the SAR 2.0 project.

The newly signed memorandum gives those talks a formal framework, but detailed engineering and the financing structure still need to be finalised before construction can begin. No start date for the new refinery was established in the announcement.

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