Aliko Dangote has announced that the Dangote Refinery has obtained a license to refine over 300,000 barrels of Nigerian crude per day and is set to initiate the processing of petrol in the near future.
The billionaire revealed this information during an interview in Riyadh at the Saudi-Nigeria business roundtable.
In his statement to Bloomberg, Dangote emphasized the refinery’s commitment to commencing operations with Nigerian crude, stating, “We don’t want to start our refinery with foreign goods; we want to start with Nigerian crude.”
He assured that the production of gasoline products would be visible soon.
Initially targeted to commence production by the end of July, the 650,000 barrel-a-day refinery missed that deadline.
Dangote expressed optimism about the refinery’s imminent operational commencement, prioritizing the supply of petrol to Nigeria before considering exports to other regions, including West Africa.
Dangote outlined the refinery’s production capacity, expecting it to yield 27 million litres of diesel, 11 million litres of kerosene, and 9 million litres of jet fuel.
The facility will source crude from various Nigerian producers, including the country’s state oil company NNPC Limited.
NNPC is set to allocate six million barrels of crude oil to Dangote Refinery in December 2023.
The national oil company introduced the Nembe crude oil grade to the market, managed through a joint venture between NNPC and Aiteo Eastern Exploration and Production Company.