The richest man in Africa, Aliko Dangote, has announced that his refinery would soon start processing gasoline after obtaining a license to refine over 300,000 barrels of Nigerian crude per day.
According to Bloomberg, Dangote stated, “We want to start our refinery with Nigerian crude, not with foreign goods,” during a Riyadh interview conducted in conjunction with the Saudi-Nigeria business roundtable.
He said, “You will see our gasoline products soon. We’re more than ready.”
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The refinery was set to begin operations in August, but it has missed multiple deadlines over the years. However, Dangote is adamant that “very very soon” his refinery would begin to produce.
According to him, the refinery’s top aim is to deliver gasoline to Nigeria before exporting it to other countries, particularly those in West Africa.
According to Devakumar Edwin, Executive Director of the Dangote Group, the PUNCH stated that the Dangote Petroleum Refinery was importing crude oil and will be receiving its first shipment in roughly two weeks.
Despite trading crude oil on behalf of Nigeria, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited had committed its petroleum to other entities, according to Edwin in an interview with S&P Global Commodity Insights at the time the article was published.
The head of the Dangote refinery withheld information about the other organizations that were getting the crude from the oil business; but, in August, the NNPCL revealed that it had signed a $3 billion crude oil-for-loan agreement with African Export-Import Bank.
ItAccording to Dangote, whose wealth is estimated by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index at $16.2 billion, the 650,000 barrel-per-day facility will receive crude from other Nigerian producers as well as the nation’s state oil company. It is anticipated to produce 27 million liters of diesel, 11 million liters of kerosene, and nine million liters of jet fuel.
Last month Nigeria’s oil output rose by 60,000 barrels per day to 1.49 million barrels per day, the highest level in almost two years.
In a joint venture, the West African nation has launched a new grade of crude called Nembe, as it increases its oil production.
A joint venture between the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) and the oil firm Aiteo Eastern E&P Co. Ltd. is expected to manage and market the Nembe crude stream.