By Abubakar Yunus
Aliko Dangote says the Dangote refinery has secured a license to refine more than 300,000 barrels of Nigerian crude per day and will begin to process petrol “soon”.
Dangote said this in an interview on Saturday in Riyadh on the sidelines of the Saudi-Nigeria business roundtable.
“We don’t want to start our refinery with foreign goods, we want to start with the Nigerian crude,” the billionaire told Bloomberg.
“We’re more than ready and you will see our gasoline products soon.”
The 650,000 barrel-a-day refinery was supposed to start production by the end of July but missed that target.
Speaking on the commencement of operations of the refinery, Dangote said the refiner will start producing “very very soon”.
He said the refinery’s first priority is to supply petrol to Nigeria before exporting to elsewhere, including the West African region.
Dangote said the 650,000 barrel-a-day facility — which is expected to produce 27 million litres of diesel, 11 million litres of kerosene and 9 million litres of jet fuel — will receive crude from other producers in Nigeria, as well as the country’s state oil company.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited is expected to allocate six million barrels of crude oil to Dangote Refinery in December 2023.
Meanwhile, during the week, the national oil company had announced the introduction of the Nembe crude oil grade to the market.
The Nembe crude stream is expected to be managed and marketed by a joint venture between NNPC and Aiteo Eastern Exploration and Production Company.
