In May, Nigeria’s new mega-refinery will start delivering gasoline domestically, reducing the country’s reliance on expensive petroleum imports.
The facility built outside Lagos by Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, dispatched its first petroleum products—diesel and aviation fuel—on Tuesday, Dangote Industries Executive Director Devakumar Edwin said in a text message, without elaborating on volumes.
The start of the two types of delivery marks a turning point for Africa’s largest oil producer, which mostly imports the refined product. The 650 000 barrels per day refinery is expected to ease Nigeria’s foreign exchange demands for fuel imports and marginally reduce the price of petroleum products.
At full capacity, the facility will produce 99 million litres (26.2 million gallons) of gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and kerosene daily, according to Edwin. Dangote plans to export about 50% of its output. “We estimate that the total consumption of these products within Nigeria is about 53 million litres per day,” he said.
Marketers have started moving diesel from the refinery and will pay in naira, according to Abubakar Maigandi, the head of an industry body.
“We are still finalising the details of the volumes that we are going to take from Dangote as an association, and we also haven’t finalised the price,” Maigandi said.
Last month, the refinery, which commenced operations in January, exported its first products, including 65,000 metric tonnes of low-sulphur straight-run fuel oil and approximately 60,000 tonnes of naphtha. It currently operates at an initial processing rate of 350,000 barrels per day, with plans to increase production to its full capacity.
