Dangote Industries Limited (DIL) expects Africa’s biggest refinery to rely totally on Nigerian crude by the end of the year, a move that would replace hundreds of thousands of barrels a day of imported oil, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.
The plant owned by Aliko Dangote, the continent’s richest person, received about half of its crude in June from local producers who will be able to sell more to the facility as their foreign supply obligations end, according to Vice President at DIL, DevakumarEdwin, who oversees the 650,000 bpd plant outside Lagos.
“We expect some of the long-term contracts will expire,” he said in an interview at the sprawling site. “Personally, and as a company, we expect that before the end of the year we can transition 100 per cent to local crude.”
Dangote sold the idea of the massive plant as a way for Nigeria, the top oil producer on the continent, to stop sending barrels to Europe only to be refined and shipped back as costly imports — a process rife with corruption.
The gradual ramp up of the refinery has already made Nigeria a net exporter of petroleum products, with room to go before reaching capacity. Still, the effort required large quantities of overseas crude after domestic traders failed to meet demand.
OPEC-member Nigeria has seen a withdrawal of oil majors from onshore and shallow water fields that have been taken over by local companies with fewer resources.
Meanwhile, supply contracts with foreign companies, crude theft and attacks on pipelines in the Niger Delta have curbed production reducing the availability of oil at home.
Since the Dangote facility opened, the company has bought crude from Brazil, Angola, Ghana and Equatorial Guinea, according to Edwin. Improved relations between the refinery, local oil traders and the government will result in a steady supply of Nigerian crude, he said.
That still requires a significant increase of local oil over the coming months. In June, the refinery sourced 53 per cent of its crude supply from domestic producers and 47 per cent from the US, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The plant is currently processing 550,000 barrels of crude a day, according to Edwin.
Dangote was scheduled to take five cargoes from Nigeria’s state oil company in July, the same amount that it’s due to take up in August, according to a list of cargo allocations seen by Bloomberg News. Each shipment holds almost a million barrels of crude.
Meanwhile, Dangote has said that he intends to contribute to a Climate Fund that will target those vulnerable parts of the country which are susceptible to natural disaster.
In an open letter in which he praised President Bola Tinubu generously for his “ visionary leadership and farsightedness, Dangote lauded several initiatives of the Nigerian leader.
“Our dear nation has also suffered significant losses in lives and property due to rising sea levels and incidents of flash flooding. In honour of your vision, the Aliko DangoteFoundation will soon be announcing plans of contributing to a Climate Fund that will target those vulnerable parts of our country which are susceptible to this natural disaster,” Dangote said in the open letter.
In view of the tragic incident in Kerr County, Texas, USA, he lauded Tinubu for transforming the Eko Atlantic which is now used for residential, business, and recreational purposes, saying it’s amongst his many legacies.
“I applaud your exemplary intervention in ending the era of ocean surge and in continuous tackling the issue of perennial flooding affecting areas such as AhmaduBello Way, Akin Adesola Street, Bishop Oluwole Street, Amodu Ojikutu Street, Adetokunbo Ademola Street and Karimu Kotun Street, among others,” he added.
Emmanuel Addeh
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