The richest man in Africa, Aliko Dangote, has announced that his refinery would soon start processing gasoline after obtaining a licence to refine over 300,000 barrels of Nigerian crude oil per day.
“We don’t want to start our refinery with foreign goods, we want to start with the Nigerian crude,” Dangote said in an interview in Riyadh on the sidelines of the Saudi-Nigeria business roundtable, according to Bloomberg.
“We’re more than ready and you will see our gasoline products soon,” he added.
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 objective is to deliver petrol to Nigeria before exporting it to other countries, particularly those in West Africa.
According to Devakumar Edwin, Executive Director of the Dangote Group, the refinery, Dangote Petroleum Refinery, was importing crude oil and would receive its first shipment in roughly two weeks.
Although the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited markets crude oil on behalf of Nigeria, Edwin disclosed in an interview with S&P Global Commodity Insights at the time that the NNPCL had committed its petroleum to other organisations, according to the report.
The head of the Dangote refinery withheld information on the other organisations 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.
According 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 litres of diesel, 11 million litres of kerosene and nine million litres of jet fuel.
Nigeria produced 1.49 million barrels of oil per day in month, the most in nearly two years, after increasing its output by 60,000 barrels per day.
As it increases its oil output, the West African country has introduced a new grade of petroleum called Nembe through a joint venture.
A joint venture between the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) and the oil company Aiteo Eastern E&P Co. Ltd. is anticipated to oversee and market the Nembe crude stream.
The OPEC member’s capacity to meet its quota has been severely hampered by crude theft and attacks on pipelines in the Niger Delta, which has made it difficult for the Nigerian government to reach its revenue targets.
