It was gathered on Sunday that the facility would require a minimum of six million barrels of crude oil to kick-start the full production of refined petroleum products including AGO, PMS, Jet A1 and Dual Purpose Kerosene, otherwise called kerosene.
But what the refinery got last week was one million barrels of crude, while the remaining five million barrels would arrive at the $20bn facility in another five installments.
The Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemical Project, a subsidiary of Dangote Industries Limited, is a 650,000 barrels per day crude oil refinery, located in Dangote Industries Free Zone, Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos, Nigeria.
Dangote Petroleum Refinery with the capacity to refine 650,000 barrels of crude oil per day covers an area of approximately 2,635 hectares and is located in the Lekki Free Trade Zone in Lagos.
On November 2, 2023, you will recall that the failure to supply crude oil to domestic refineries, including the multi-billion dollar Dangote refinery, stalled the production of refined petroleum products at the facilities.
The report also stated that the lack of crude oil supply came as the 650,000 barrels per day Dangote Refinery in Lagos missed the October production projection it had earlier set.
It pointed out that the October production target miss made it the second time in 2023 that Dangote Refinery would raise hopes in Africa, especially Nigeria, of a possible end to petrol importation.
Following reports, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited swiftly declared the next day November 3, 2023, that it was set to provide six million barrels of crude oil to the Dangote Refinery. It, however, has yet to do so.
But on Friday, the management of Dangote Refinery confirmed the receipt of one million barrels of crude oil, adding that this would lead to the production of refined products at the facility.
“In a major step towards boosting Nigeria’s domestic refining capacity and attaining energy security (self-sufficiency), Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals plant has purchased one million barrels of Agbami crude grade from Shell International Trading and Shipping Company Limited, one of the largest trading companies in Nigeria as well as globally, trading over eight million barrels of crude oil per day,” the oil firm had stated.
But when contacted on Sunday to confirm whether the company would start pumping out refined PMS based on the one million barrels of crude that it received on Friday, an official of the firm stated that what Nigerians should expect in January would be diesel and aviation fuel.