Dangote Refinery ousts first petroleum products
The new Dangote oil refinery will supply a total of 25 million litres of petrol to the Nigerian market daily.
Nigeria's Dangote Oil Refinery has begun processing gasoline after delays caused by recent crude shortages, an executive said on Monday.
The $20 billion refinery on the outskirts of Lagos, built by Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote, began operations in January with output of products including naphtha and jet fuel.
With a capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, Africa's largest refinery promises to ease oil producer Nigeria's costly reliance on imported oil products, Reuters reported on Tuesday.
- "We are testing the product (gasoline) and subsequently it will start flowing into the product tanks," said Devakumar Edwin, a vice president at Dangote Industries Limited. He did not say exactly when the gasoline would hit the local market.
Edwin said state-oil firm NNPC Ltd, Nigeria's sole importer of gasoline, would buy its gasoline exclusively.
"If no one is buying it, we will export it as we have been exporting our aviation jet fuel and diesel," Edwin said. The Dangote oil refinery will supply a total of 25 million litres of petrol to the Nigerian market daily, according to press reports in Nigeria.
- The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority disclosed on Tuesday that this would rise to 30 million litres in the coming weeks.
“The refinery is now poised to supply an initial 25 million litres of PMS into the domestic market this September. And will subsequently increase this amount to 30 million litres daily from October 2024,” the NMDPRA said on its X page.
The delivery of gasoline into the Nigerian market will ease NNPC's struggle to supply the local market. The company is reeling with debts of $6 billion to oil traders for supplies since January.
This has affected its ability to supply the local market where fuel queues have persisted since July.
Nigeria is Africa's top oil producer yet it imports almost all its fuel due to years of neglect of its national refineries.
- The development of local gasoline production by Dangote Oil Refinery would thus reduce Nigeria’s dependence on fuel imports, thereby improving its energy security.