The Dangote Petroleum Refinery is set to receive 12 million barrels of crude oil from the United States to address local supply shortages, The Africa Report disclosed on Monday.
The $20 billion refinery, which aims to achieve its full refining capacity of 650,000 barrels per day (bpd) by June 2025, has been facing difficulties in sourcing sufficient crude from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC).
According to reports, the shipment of US crude has already departed and is expected to arrive in Nigeria by February. “About 12 million barrels of crude have departed the US and should arrive in Nigeria by February,” an insider told The Africa Report
Currently, the NNPC is unable to meet the refinery’s daily crude requirement of 550,000 barrels, supplying only 350,000 bpd out of the 450,000 bpd earmarked for Nigeria’s local consumption. This shortfall has forced the refinery to look beyond Nigeria’s borders for its crude feedstock.
Officials confirmed that the refinery is operating at approximately 500,000 bpd, with plans to ramp up production to 650,000 bpd by mid-2025. “It’s a normal process to source crude oil from anywhere it is available,” a refinery official told The PUNCH.
The refinery is also expanding its storage capacity to accommodate the imported crude. Eight additional tanks are being constructed, increasing total crude storage by 41.67% to 3.4 billion litres.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s directive for NNPC to sell crude oil to local refineries in naira remains in place. However, this arrangement has been limited to the Dangote Refinery, with plans to extend it to other refineries, such as the soon-to-be-functional Port Harcourt and Warri refineries.
According to the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), the Dangote Refinery will require 550,000 barrels of crude daily, amounting to 17.05 million barrels monthly and 99.55 million barrels in the first half of 2025.
The refinery’s reliance on imported crude reflects the inconsistencies in local supply. “Importing crude from other countries instead of buying locally means that our crude stockpiles will have to be higher,” said Devakumar Edwin, Vice President of Oil and Gas at Dangote Industries.
In May 2024, the refinery issued a tender for 24 million barrels of West Texas Intermediate Midland crude to be delivered in monthly shipments of two million barrels starting from July 2024.
The Dangote Refinery currently produces petrol, diesel, and aviation fuel for Nigeria and export markets, positioning itself as a critical player in Africa’s downstream petroleum sector.
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