By-Abba Hamisu Sani
Africa-Press – Nigeria. The first crude oil supply to Dangote refinery was a major landmark to the 19 billion dollar single investment
by the Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote.On 8th December 2023 the company received one million barrel of crude oil from Shell International Trading and Shipping Co.(STASCO).
This development brings the start up of the new refinery operations closer after years of anticipation.
In a statement recently released by the Dangote Group, the company says the cargo of one million barrels of crude oil received from Agbami, a deep water field run by Chevron, was the first out of the six million barrels expected to enable an initial run of the refinery.
Agbami is operated by Chevron and pumps roughly 100,000 barrels per day in the central oil-rich Niger Delta. It produces light sweet crude, known in the market for yielding a significant amount of naphtha and kerosene.
The refinery’s startup has been continuously postponed since the project was announced in 2013 even though most of the key units were installed in 2019. Besides, due to a shortage of domestic crude feedstock, the privately owned facility has not produced any oil products yet, although it was technically completed in May.
The refinery will produce 327,000 barrels of gasoline per day when it is fully operational, as well as 244,000 barrels of gas oli/diesel, 56,000 barrels of jet fuel/kerosene, and 290,000 metric tons of propane/LPG annually.
The start-up output will be diesel aviation fuel and Liquefied Petroleum Gas, before the production of premium Motor Spirit.
The statement added that the STASCO cargo arrived on a chartered vessel and was discharged into the refinery’s crude oil tanks.
The next four cargoes are to be supplied by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited -NNPC in two to three weeks from the first supply and a final cargo will come from ExxonMobil.
It could be recalled that the Dangote refinery signed an agreement with NNPC Limited which has a 20 percent stake in the refinery in November this year (2023) to supply it with six cargoes of crude oil starting from December.
Nigeria experiences repeated fuel shortages
Despite being Africa’s largest oil producer, Nigeria experiences fuel shortages as it spent 23.3 billion dollars last year (2022) on petroleum products imports and consumes about 33 million litres of petrol per day.
“Our focus over the coming months is to ramp up the refinery to its full capacity” Dangote Group stated
The refinery which was commissioned by the former Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari in May 2023 after it ran years behind schedule is the massive petrochemical complex in Africa.
When fully running the 650,000 barrel per day refinery will turn oil powerhouse Nigeria into a net exporter of fuels ,a long -soght goal for Nigeria that almost totally relies on imports to meet its refined oil demands
Dangote refinery to generate 100,000 job opportunities
The refinery which is expected to generate 21 billion dollars will also provide employment to over 100,000 Nigerian Youths ,therefore saving the country’s huge foreign exchange ,that would have been used for fuel importation as presently the company has over 33 ,000 employees.
The refinery is expected to export 40 percent of its production hence Nigerian economy will be boost as it will also produce raw materials for plastic ,and pharmaceutical industries which also enhance local productivity among small and medium Enterprises that produce plastics and pharmaceutical consumables
It could however be recalled that when commissioning the facility former Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said ” this feat at this time of the nation’s economic development clearly made this event a notable milestone for our economy and the game changer for the downstream petroleum products not only for Nigeria but the entire African continent
Dangote Group has helped transform our economy from heavy import dependence to a net exporter in some critical Industries including cement and Fertilizer.
We recognise that without active participation of the private sector and a strong commitment to public -private partnership ,the economy will not be able to continue to meet the challenge and economic growth.Ex-Nigerian President Buhari said.
The special features of the refinery
The refinery was built to take crude through its two SPMs located 25 kilometres from the shore and to discharge petroleum products through three separate SPMs. In addition, the refinery has the capacity to load 2,900 trucks a day at its truck loading gantries.
Dangote Refinery also has a self-sufficient marine facility with the ability to handle the largest vessel globally available. In addition, all products from the refinery will conform to Euro V specifications.
The refinery is designed to comply with US EPA, European emission norms, and Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) emission/effluent norms as well as African Refiners and Distribution Association (ARDA) standards
However many Nigerians considered this development as a progress but to the majority it will not change the price of the fuel as already the subsidy is removed by the present administration under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The only angle to be appreciated by Nigerians is the job opportunities attached to the operations of the new refinery as millions of Nigerian youths are jobless even the graduates from Universities and other tertiary Institutions.
Another aspect to appreciate also is saving the Foreign Exchange aspect as dollars and other foreign currencies needed to import the refined petroleum products could be channelled to other needs such as payment for school fees Nigerians studying abroad ,medical bills and importation of industrial machines to boost productivity.
The other side of the issue is that Nigeria needs to increase its crude oil production in order to meet the demands of Multilateral oil buyers and that of Dangote refinery meaning that security challenges in Niger Delta have to be addressed ,Oil theft has to be tackled among other challenges affecting the crude production for quite a long.
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