Dangote’s first sea shipment, 79.4m litres petrol Enters Lagos Market, massive refinery kicks into high gear

The tanker Sabaek recently carried around 500,000 barrels of petrol from the Dangote refinery to Lagos, according to a port report and ship-tracking data from Bloomberg.

Meanwhile, the refinery’s residue fluid catalytic cracker (RFCC)—a key part of fuel production—is steadily increasing output, says someone in the know, though they preferred to stay anonymous since they weren’t authorized to share details. Dangote’s reps? Silent so far—no response yet to requests for comment.

Once this behemoth of a refinery, capable of processing 650,000 barrels a day, is fully up and running, it could change the game for the region’s gasoline market, slashing the need to import fuel from Europe. It’s already stirred things up by reducing the excess crude Nigeria usually has lying around.

This shipment marks a big step—coming about a month after the refinery started trucking out petrol to meet demand.

For those curious, the RFCC unit plays a key role in refining crude, turning it into high-value fuels like gasoline. It’s a game-changer in making more out of what’s available.

So far, the refinery’s been supplied with four cargoes of crude oil from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, all under the new naira-for-crude agreement. These deliveries arrived over the last three weeks, right after the government kicked off local currency sales of crude to Nigerian refineries.

And more crude’s on the way. Insiders from the Technical Subcommittee on Domestic Sale of Crude Oil in Local Currency—who asked to stay off the record—let slip to The PUNCH that “more cargoes (of crude) would be delivered to the Dangote refinery in the coming weeks.”

It’s worth noting: with this $20 billion plant in Lekki gearing up, Dangote’s refinery is about to start selling refined petrol directly to local dealers, marking a major shift in the market. Right now, it’s still the only petrol-producing facility in Nigeria…[CONTINUE READING HERE]>>