The President of Dangote Petroleum Refinery, Aliko Dangote, has said that the refinery will supply its refined products such as petrol, diesel and aviation fuel not only to the Nigerian market, but also export to other African countries once the refinery reaches full operation.
Dangote told a panel at the Africa CEO Forum in Kigali, Rwanda, on Friday, that the 650,000 barrels per day (bpd) refinery has the capacity not only to meet the local demands but also to export refined products to other African countries.
Africa’s richest man said that the refinery will have sufficient supplies of gasoline, diesel, and aviation fuel to meet the needs of the African continent and also to export to Brazil.
“We started producing jet fuel, we are producing diesel, by next month, we’ll be producing gasoline. What that will do, it will be able to take most African crudes.
“Our capacity is too big for Nigeria. It will be able to supply West Africa, Central Africa and also Southern Africa,” Dangote told the panel.
According to him, the next phase of the refinery will start early next year.
Deal with TotalEnergies
On his part, Chief Executive Officer of TotalEnergies, Patrick Pouyanne, said that the company has secured a deal with Dangote to supply crude oil to the $20 billion refinery.
Pouyanne told a panel that he met with Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, and the company was able to persuade him to take the deal.
“The two CEOs met with our head of trading and we found the way to convince them to make a deal,” he added.
TotalEnergies is one of the major producers of crude in Nigeria alongside Shell and ExxonMobil.
What you should know
The Dangote refinery was completed by Africa’s wealthiest individual, Aliko Dangote, with an investment of $20 billion.
The refinery, with a processing potential of 650,000 barrels per day, is the biggest in both Africa and Europe upon achieving full operational status, which is expected either this year or next.
- The Dangote refinery is expected to significantly reduce Nigeria’s dependence on imported petroleum products.
- Nigeria, despite being the most populous country in Africa and its top oil producer, ironically imports almost all of its fuel.
- Primarily, this is attributed to the nation’s lack of sufficient refining infrastructure, a gap that the new refinery seeks to fill.
- The refinery began operation last month as it sold its first batch of aviation jet fuel and diesel to local marketers in the country.