The Dangote Petroleum Refinery is set to receive 12 million barrels of crude oil from the United States, as reported by Africa Report on Monday. This decision to import crude oil comes in response to local supply challenges that have hindered the $20 billion refinery's efforts to achieve its full capacity.
The refinery, which aims to reach a production capacity of 650,000 barrels per day by June this year, has faced setbacks due to limited local crude supply from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC). The report indicates that the 12 million barrels have already departed the U.S. and are expected to arrive in Nigeria next month.
According to an insider who spoke with The Africa Report, "roughly 12 million barrels of crude have left the U.S. and should arrive in Nigeria by February." Meanwhile, the PUNCH reports that the Dangote Petroleum Refinery is relying on imported crude as its supply from NNPC dwindles. Plant officials have noted that production has increased to approximately 500,000 barrels per day, with aspirations to reach the targeted 650,000 barrels per day by June.
According to sources who spoke to our correspondent, the facility will need to buy more crude in order to reach its goal, even though they confirmed that the naira-for-crude contract is still in place as instructed by President Bola Tinubu last year.
According to sources who spoke to our correspondent, the Dangote refinery will need to purchase additional crude oil to meet its production goals, despite confirmation that the naira-for-crude contract remains in effect as directed by President Bola Tinubu last year. Reports indicate that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) is struggling to supply the refinery with the 350,000 barrels per day needed out of a total of 450,000 barrels per day designated for local consumption in Nigeria.
Officials have noted that, given the refinery's current production capacity of 500,000 barrels per day, it is essential to seek crude oil supplies outside of Nigeria. The NNPC has been unable to provide the full amount of feedstock required by the refinery on a daily basis. According to a crude oil production forecast prepared by Gbenga Komolafe, Chief Executive of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, the Dangote refinery will need 550,000 barrels of a blend of Nigerian crude oil per day, amounting to 17.05 million barrels per month and 99.55 million barrels between January and June 2025.
Eight additional tanks are currently under construction at the Dangote refinery to facilitate the storage of imported crude oil. This decision comes in response to the unreliability of local crude supplies, with refinery officials stating that insufficient deliveries from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) “is driving import dependence.”
The expansion of the eight new tanks will increase the refinery's crude storage capacity by 41.67 percent, bringing it to a total of 3.4 billion liters. Furthermore, a term tender was reportedly published by the refinery in May 2024, seeking to purchase two million barrels of West Texas Intermediate Midland crude each month for a duration of 12 months, commencing in July of last year. This would result in a total acquisition of 24 million barrels of crude over the course of one year.
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