By Adaobi Rhema Oguejiofor
Dangote Refinery is set to begin operations in October with the refining of diesel and aviation fuel (Jet A1) as the first products. The production capacity is to start at 370,000 barrels per day (bpd).
The Dangote Group Executive Director (ED), Devakumar Edwin, in an interview with S&P Global Commodity Insights, said that the $19.5 billion refinery would gradually scale up production to the original design of 650,000 bpd capacity.
Edwin stated that the Company survived a series of complications and delays since the project began in 2013. He added that it is ready to receive crude oil and is just waiting for the first vessel to arrive so it can start.
The ED explained that although the refinery was designed to process light Nigerian crude, the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, which is a shareholder in the project, cannot supply the refinery until November, therefore, the Company is buying oil from trading houses.
In his own words, “at the last minute, NNPCL said that they have committed their crude on a forward basis to someone else and at the moment they do not have the crude. However this is a temporary issue, and the refinery should run on exclusively Nigerian crude by November.”
According to him, the scale of the refinery, which is solely dependent on Nigerian crude would not be advisable, as the refinery can process most African crude, apart from heavy Angolan grades, as well as Middle Eastern Arab Light and even US light tight oil.