A licence to process more than 300,000 barrels of crude oil per day has been obtained by the Dangote Refinery. On November 11, Alhaji Aliko Dangote during an interview conducted separately at the Saudi-Nigeria business roundtable in Riyadh, made this statement.
Dangote also said the refinery would start refining operations shortly. He claims that the refinery’s first goal is to provide Nigeria with fuel before selling to any other country, including other countries in West Africa.
He stated:
We would want to begin operating our refinery using Nigerian crude rather than imported commodities. You’ll soon be able to view our gasoline-related items as we are more than prepared.
He said that his refinery would be receiving crude from other Nigerian producers as well as the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and is anticipated to generate 27 million litres of diesel, 11 million litres of kerosene, and 9 million litres of jet fuel.
For testing reasons, the NNPCL recently unveiled a plan to supply the Dangote oil refinery with up to six cargoes of crude oil in December.
Industry sources from the Dangote refinery and NNPCL claim that this action is part of a one-year contract.
A report by Reuters said that the daily exports in December will amount to 200,000 barrels. The particular quantities over the next months will be decided by consensus and availability.
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A proposal for four to five shipments, or at least 130,000 barrels each day, is suggested by other sources.
In September 2023, S&P Global Commodity Insights had an exclusive interview with Devakumar Edwin, Executive Director of the Dangote Group, who provided unique insights.
He said that the Dangote refinery aimed to start refining diesel and jet fuel by October 2023 and to start refining petrol in November of the same year.
He said at the time that beginning in October 2023, the plant would be equipped to generate up to 370,000 barrels of diesel and jet fuel per day.
Dangote Refinery Production Target
Furthermore, he said that the refinery is expected to start a gradual ramp-up by November 30 in order to attain its maximum capacity of producing 650,000 barrels of fuel per day. However, the timeframe slipped by.
Things to be aware of
The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has made it known that it intends to hold local refineries accountable for supplying domestic crude oil. The Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) of 2021 provisions would be upheld, according to the Chief Executive of the Commission, Engr. Gbenga Komolafe made this assurance at a meeting with crude suppliers on November 1 in Abuja.
During the stakeholder conference at the Commission’s offices, Engineer Komolafe emphasised the need to adhere to the extant laws of the PIA.
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He especially referred to Section 109 of the Act, which gives the NUPRC the authority to assign domestic crude oil supply responsibilities to different lessees in accordance with the national crude oil need demand curve.
He called for the constant provision of information by crude oil producers to the NUPRC on their committed and uncommitted barrels, stressing the enforcement of all facets of the PIA.
