Dangote refinery expects 12m barrels U.S crude to ramp up production 

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Dangote refinery expects 12m barrels U.S crude to ramp up production 

The refinery resorted to crude importation as local supply challenges hindered the new $20 billion refinery located in Lekki, Lagos State, Nigeria from reaching its full refining capacity.

In spite of an agreement to purchase crude from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited in local currency, the supply has remained low, thereby posing a challenge to the  company’s daily production plan.

“About 12 million barrels of crude have departed the US and should arrive in Nigeria by February,” an insider source told The Africa Report.

Officials at the plant said the facility has so far ramped up production to about 500,000 barrels per day, with the target of hitting the 650,000bpd mark by June this year.

The NNPC is reportedly struggling to supply 350,000bpd to the Dangote refinery from the 450,000bpd crude meant for Nigeria’s local consumption.

With its current production capacity of 500,000bpd, officials said there is need to look beyond the shores of Nigeria for the feedstock, as the state-owned oil company, NNPC, cannot supply the required crude needed by the company.

A crude oil production forecast by the Chief Executive of the Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission, Gbenga Komolafe, indicated that Dangote refinery would require 550,000 barrels of  Nigerian crude oil daily, 17.05 million barrels monthly, and 99.55 million barrels between January and June 2025.

The Dangote refinery is already building eight more tanks to stockpile imported crude as local supplies become unreliable.

Officials of the refinery were quoted as saying that low crude supply from the NNPC “is driving import dependence.”

The building of eight additional tanks will see crude storage capacity at the refinery jump by 41.67 per cent to 3.4 billion litres.

“Importing crude from other countries instead of buying locally means that our crude stockpiles will have to be higher,” the Vice President in charge of the oil and gas business at Dangote Industries, Devakumar Edwin, was quoted recently as saying.

In May 2024, the refinery reportedly issued a term tender for the purchase of two million barrels of West Texas Intermediate Midland crude monthly for 12 months starting in July last year, amounting to 24 million barrels of crude in one year.

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