The 650,000 barrel-per-day capacity crude processing plant of Dangote Refinery will commence sales to fuel marketers in August.
This development follows the intervention of Nigerian Government in a major dispute between the International Oil Companies and Dangote Refinery.
It will be recalled that Production began at Africa’s biggest refinery in January, 2024 with the refiner processing diesel and aviation fuel which serves as a big relief for Nigerians.
Gasoline production to commence in July with sales from August,” Aliko Dangote, Africa’s Richest Man And The president of the Dangote Group, said on Sunday during a presentation at a media tour of the plant in Lagos.
He told journalists that the conflict with International oil Companies in respect of the supply of feedstock has been laid to rest following the mediation of state oil company NNPC Limited and the Nigerian Government.
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“We will never allow price strangulation to disincentivise our domestic refining capacity optimisation,” NUPRC’s CEO Gbenga Komolafe said after meeting with the members of the Oil Producers Trade Section, a group of domestic and international producers.
His remark followed an allegation by Dangote Group that international oil companies are standing in the way of the smooth running of the plant by offering crude oil to the refiner at a cost above the market price.
“The IOCs are deliberately and willfully frustrating our efforts to buy the local crude. They are either asking for ridiculous/humongous premium(s), or they simply state that crude is unavailable,” Devakumar Edwin, vice president oil & gas at Dangote Industries, said in June.
The refinery has had to rely on crude from the US in recent times to keep running and is set for a receipt of oil shipment from Brazil soon.
Currently running at a capacity per day, the refinery is expected to wean Nigeria off reliance on imported fuel, which consumes a big portion of its scarce foreign exchange, and also supply petroleum products to other parts of West Africa.
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