Dangote Refinery Set for Production, Receives 6th Batch of 1m Crude Oil Barrels

Olufemi Adeyemi

The 650,000 barrel-per-day refinery funded by Africa's richest man Aliko Dangote, Dangote oil refinery could begin test runs as early as this week after receiving a sixth crude cargo on Monday, company officials said, finally bringing the 650,000 barrels per day (bpd) plant to life after years of construction delays.

The fresh one million Agbami barrels of crude via MT ALMI SUN is the sixth to complete the scheduled 6 million barrels consignment to be delivered to the Dangote facility needed to commence operations by the world's largest single-train refinery.

Exactly a month ago, Dangote Refinery received the first one million barrels of Agbami crude grade from Shell International Trading and Shipping Company Limited (STASCO), one of the largest trading companies in Nigeria as well as globally, trading over 8 million barrels of crude oil per day.

Since then, Dangote Refinery has been receiving in batches, one million barrels of crude oil with the lastest batch of the 6 million already being discharged at the Single Point Mooring (SPM-C2) at the Dangote Offshore Oil Terminal (DOOT)

Speaking during the maiden delivery then, Managing Director of Dangote Ports Operations, Mr. Akin Omole told newsmen at the Dangote Quay, Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos that the Refinery January would collect all the 6 million barrels of crude before the end of January to put the Refinery in good stead to commence operation.

Said he “Once the 6 million barrels are fully delivered, it will facilitate the initial run of the refinery as well as kick-start the production of diesel, aviation fuel, and LPG before subsequently progressing to the production of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS).

This latest development will play a pivotal role in alleviating the fuel supply challenges faced by Nigeria as well as the West African countries.

Designed for 100% Nigerian crude with the flexibility to process other crudes, the 650,000 barrels per day Dangote Petroleum Refinery can process most African crude grades as well as Middle Eastern Arab Light and even US Light tight oil as well as crude from other countries.

Dangote Petroleum Refinery can meet 100% of Nigeria’s requirement of all refined products, gasoline, diesel, kerosene, and aviation jet, and also have surplus of each of these products for export.

The refinery was built to take crude through its two SPMs located 25 kilometres from the shore and to discharge petroleum products through three separate SPMs. In addition, the refinery has the capacity to load 2,900 trucks a day at its truck loading gantries.

Dangote Refinery has a self-sufficient marine facility with the ability to handle the largest vessel globally available. In addition, all products from the refinery will conform to Euro V specifications.

The refinery is designed to comply with US EPA, European emission norms, and Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) emission/effluent norms as well as African Refiners and Distribution Association (ARDA) standards.

January 09, 2024