Africa’s largest oil refinery, Dangote Refinery, has moved the date of production of premium motor spirit (PMS), popularly known as petrol, from June to the middle of July.
The President and CEO of the refinery, Aliko Dangote, confirmed the new production date to newsmen at the $20 billion facility in Lagos on Monday.
Dangote mentioned that the change in date was due to a slight delay, prompting the shift from the originally proposed June to mid-July.
The CEO said the refinery will commence production of petrol between 10 and 15 of July, while supply to local marketers will commence from the third week of the same month.
“We had a bit of delay, but PMS will start coming out by 10 to 15 of July. But then we want to keep it in tank to make sure that it settles. So by third week of July, we’ll be able coming out to take it into the market,” Dangote said.
Backstory
Earlier, the Dangote refinery was expected to begin production and supply of petrol this month, according to different reports.
For instance, analyst at the Standard and Poor’s’ Global (S&P Global) Commodities Insights predicted that the refinery will start supply of petrol in the fourth quarter of this year, particularly in the month of June.
“We are starting to see signs of activities, but all eyes are on when we’ll start to see gasoline production will commence from that project. There is a significant amount of pressure from the Nigerian government for significant volume of that supply to be sent to the domestic market.
“In reality, when we see that start scale up is still subject to debate. Dangote has recently been espousing some punchy timelines. They have most recently been saying that they are looking to produce gasoline by May. But in reality, our analyst expect that would be something like the fourth quarter of this year in a more realistic timeline,” the analysts said.
Exportation of Jet Fuel
Meanwhile, the refinery has begun the supply of jet fuel and diesel to domestic marketers in the country.
In addition, the $20 billion facility started exporting its first jet fuel cargo to Europe.
The first shipment, loaded onto the vessel “Doric Breeze,” left the Lekki Free Zone in Lagos on May 27th and is now on its way to Rotterdam, Netherlands, as per data from S&P Global Commodities at Sea.
More Insights
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.
Dangote said the refinery is positioned to be one of the best petroleum refineries in the world.
“What we are doing is to be able to export petroleum products to anywhere and compete with any company. By next week, we’ll be producing about ten thousand ppm in terms of diesel which now what’s happening in that we import about 2 to 3 thousand. We will produce the best,” Dangote added.
