Finally, Nigeria’s Dangote refinery begins production
Nigeria’s Dangote petroleum refinery has begun producing diesel and aviation fuel, the company said on Saturday, after years of construction delays at the 650,000 barrel per day (bpd) plant.
Africa’s largest refinery in Ibeju-Lekki peninsula, Lagos, Nigeria was built at a cost of $20 billion by the continent’s richest man Aliko Dangote.
The Dangote refinery is expected to not only make Nigeria self-sufficient but also allow it to export fuel to neighbouring West African countries, potentially transforming oil trading in the Atlantic Basin.
Officials of the company say test runs could begin this week after the refinery received a sixth crude oil cargo on Jan. 8.
“This is a big day for Nigeria. We are delighted to have reached this significant milestone,” the company said in a statement posted on social media platform X.
The statement said the refinery has so far received six million barrels of crude oil at its two SPMs located 25 kilometres from the shore. The first crude delivery was done on December 12, 2023, and the 6th cargo was delivered on January 8, 2024.
The Refinery can load 2,900 trucks a day at its truck-loading gantries. The products from the Refinery will conform to Euro V specifications. The refinery design complies with the World Bank, US EPA, European emission norms, and Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) emission/effluent norms. Employing state-of-the-art technology.
The plant received 1 million barrels of Nigeria’s Agbami crude on Monday, taking the total volume received since December to 6 million barrels.
Dangote has said it will start by refining 350,000 bpd, hoping to ramp up to full production later this year.
Also, Nigeria’s state-owned NNPC Ltd. is expected to supply four crude cargoes to the refinery from its February programme.
It could take months after the start up of the refinery’s crude distillation unit to move from test runs to the production of high-quality fuels at full capacity, according to experts.
