Africa Report has yesterday reported that Dangote Petroleum Refinery has been detailed to receive 12 million barrels of crude oil from the United States. This followed the report that local supply challenges have continued to hinder the new $20bn refinery has push to reach its full refining capacity that has made the Dangote resorted to crude importation.
Recall that the refinery plans to reach its 650,000 barrels per day capacity latest by June this year.
However, low local crude supply from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL is currently hindering the Dangote plan to ramp up its daily production.
According to the report the 12 million barrels of crude has already left the United States and is expected to land in Nigeria next month.
“About 12 million barrels of crude have departed the US and should arrive in Nigeria by February,” an insider source told The Africa Report.
Recall that the Dangote Petroleum Refinery is importing more crude oil as supply from the NNPC becomes insufficient for fuel production at the $20bn Lekki-based facility.
Officials at the plant said the facility has ramped up production to about 500,000 barrels per day, with the target of hitting the 650,000bpd bench mark by June this year.
While affirming that the naira-for-crude deal is still on as directed by President Bola Tinubu last year, sources disclosed that the facility will have to import more crude oil to meet its target.
It was learned that the NNPC is struggling to supply only 350,000bpd to the Dangote refinery out of the 450,000bpd crude meant for Nigeria’s local consumption.
With its current production capacity of 500,000bpd, officials said there is a need to look beyond the shores of Nigeria for the feedstock.
It was said that the feedstock needed by the refinery daily cannot be solely supplied by the state-owned oil company, NNPC.
“Currently, we are at 500,000bpd; we will ramp to 650,000 by midyear. You know what it means? So, it is a normal process to source crude oil anywhere it is available,” an official at the plant told The PUNCH.
Recall that in July last year, President Tinubu ordered the NNPC to sell crude oil to local refineries in naira and which Dangote is included.
In October, the committee supervising the naira-for-crude deal commenced the sale of crude to only the Dangote refinery in naira, insisting that it would sell to only petrol-producing refineries.
However, with the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries coming back to life, more refineries would be considered for the naira-for-crude arrangement.
According to the crude oil production forecast of producing oil companies and the refining requirement of functional refineries in Nigeria signed by the Chief Executive of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, Gbenga Komolafe, the Dangote refinery would require 550,000 barrels of a blend of Nigerian crude oil daily, 17.05 million barrels monthly, and 99.55 million barrels between January and June 2025.
The Dangote refinery is already building eight more tanks to store imported crude. The facility is planning to stockpile imported crude oil as local supplies become unreliable.
Officials of the refinery were quoted as saying that low crude supply from the NNPC “is driving import dependence.”
The building of eight additional tanks will see crude storage capacity at the refinery jump by 41.67 per cent to 3.4 billion litres.
“Importing crude from other countries instead of buying locally means that our crude stockpiles will have to be higher,” the Vice President in charge of the oil and gas business at Dangote Industries, Devakumar Edwin, was quoted as having said recently.
In May 2024, the refinery reportedly issued a term tender for the purchase of two million barrels of West Texas Intermediate Midland crude monthly for 12 months starting in July last year, amounting to 24 million barrels of crude in one year.
Dangote refinery currently supplies petrol, diesel, and aviation fuel to Nigeria and other countries.
