Ever since the days when European adventurers landed on African shores looking for gold, pepper and palm oil, the continent has served as a trove of resources to feed the growing economies of the west. Crude oil is now Africa’s most prized commodity, but the pattern of trading remains the same as when the first African harvests where shipped back for processing in Europe’s factories and mills.

The vast majority of Africa’s crude is exported to refineries in the US, Europe, and Asia, depriving the continent that produced it of billions of dollars of income that could be earned by transforming the oil into more valuable fuels. But in the past few years, companies from Nigeria to Angola, South Africa to Kenya, and Egypt to Morocco have drawn up plans to expand refining capacity to help reduce their reliance on imports and meet growing domestic demand.