In a significant stride towards enhancing Nigeria’s energy refining capacity, Dangote Refinery has received its third one-million-barrel crude oil shipment from Shell International Trading and Shipping Company Limited (STASCO). This brings the total stored at the facility’s Single-Point Mooring to three million barrels, with a fourth shipment en route, as reported by the ARISE NEWS team.
The refinery, poised to kickstart operations at 350,000 barrels per day (bpd), is set to commence the production of diesel and aviation fuel by mid-January 2024, followed by Premium Motor Spirit production.
Dangote Petroleum Refinery holds the potential to fulfill 100% of Nigeria’s refined product requirements, including gasoline, diesel, kerosene, and aviation jet fuel. Moreover, it is expected to have a surplus of each product for export.
In a recent milestone, the $20 billion refinery received its initial 950,000-barrel cargo earlier this month, marking the commencement of crude supplies for the refinery’s operational phase. The continuous progress aligns with the refinery’s pivotal role in bolstering Nigeria’s energy security and refining capabilities.
The tanker chartered by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), symbolized the initial crude supply to Dangote’s state-of-the-art refinery as it geared up to initiate production.
The owner, Aliko Dangote had earlier stated that the Dangote Refinery will fully come online with the refining of 650, 000 barrels per day by the end of 2024.
Dangote, in an interview in November, also said that the refinery would start with refining Nigerian crude, insisting that the refinery’s first priority is to supply petrol to Nigeria before exporting elsewhere, including the West African region.
“We don’t want to start our refinery with foreign goods, we want to start with the Nigerian crude.
We’re more than ready and you will see our gasoline products soon.”
The refinery situated on the outskirts of Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial hub, had faced delays since its announcement in 2013, despite substantial installation progress made in 2019.
In September 2023, the refinery announced that it will start producing diesel and kerosene in October 2023 and a gasoline one month later.
In October, it was clear that the refinery would not yet be able to start operations because the supply of crude oil was stalling, which caused considerable public reaction.
On 25 November, a new date of December 2023 was given for the start of operations, with the refinery expecting a delivery of 6 million barrels of crude oil in December.
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