ByTsvetana Paraskova– Feb 10, 2025, 8:30 AM CST
The Dangote oil refinery in Nigeria, Africa’s largest crude processing facility, could reach full operational capacity next month, says the head of the refinery, which began fuel production in 2024.
The refinery started up in January last year with the launch of diesel and naphtha production and began producing gasoline in September.
‘;
document.write(write_html);
}
The Dangote facility, built by Africa’s richest person, Aliko Dangote, has toa tal processing capacity of 650,000 barrels per day (bpd), which makes it Africa’s biggest and one of the world’s largest crude processing sites.
Currently, Dangote is operating at about 85% of capacity, and “we can go 100 percent in 30 days,” the head of the refinery, Edwin Devakumar, told Reuters.
The refinery is expected to meet 100% of Nigeria’s demand for all refined petroleum products and will also have a surplus of each of the products for export.
So far, Nigeria, the biggest oil producer in Africa, has been importing all of the fuel it consumes.
For years, Nigeria has been importing the gasoline it consumes, but the newly operational refinery is poised to turn OPEC’s largest African crude oil producer from a gasoline importer to a gasoline exporter, impacting fuel market balances, especially in Europe.
Large commodity trading firms such as Vitol and Trafigura, as well as supermajor BP, were the biggest and dominant buyers of fuels lifted from the Dangote refinery last year. Most of the refinery’s shipments of fuel have been picked up by the three major oil traders—the world’s largest independent oil trader, Vitol Group, commodity trading giant Trafigura, and integrated oil and gas major BP, Bloomberg reported in November, citing data from Geneva-based oil and gas analytics firm Precise Intelligence.
However, crude supply to the refinery has been an issue for Dangote during the first year of operations. Aliko Dangote and Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu have met with representatives of the domestic oil industry regulators and oil industry officials to discuss crude deliveries to the new mega refinery.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
More Top Reads From Oilprice.com
Join the discussion | Back to homepage
