The Dangote Petroleum Refinery plans to end crude importation by December 2025, a move that will replace hundreds of thousands of barrels per day of foreign oil.
According to a Bloomberg report, Devakumar Edwin, Vice President at Dangote Industries, who oversees the 650,000 barrel-a-day plant in Lagos, stated that “contracts with foreign crude suppliers would expire” and the refinery would then source its feedstock locally.
Edwin confirmed that the company has previously imported crude from Brazil, Angola, Ghana, and Equatorial Guinea. However, he noted that “improved relations between the refinery, local oil traders and the government will result in a steady supply of Nigerian crude.”
The report indicated that the plant received approximately half of its crude supply in June from local producers. These domestic producers will be able to sell more to the refinery as their foreign supply obligations conclude soon.
When this transition is fully implemented, the refinery will rely entirely on Nigerian crude as a substitute for its imports. Edwin was quoted saying, “We expect some of the long-term contracts will expire. Personally, and as a company, we expect that before the end of the year, we can transition 100 per cent to local crude.”
Data compiled by Bloomberg revealed that in June, the refinery sourced 53% of its crude supply from domestic producers and 47% from the United States. Edwin confirmed that the plant is currently processing 550,000 barrels of crude per day.
Dangote is scheduled to receive five cargoes from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited in July, with the same quantity expected in August, according to cargo allocation lists seen by Bloomberg News. Each of these shipments contains nearly a million barrels of crude.
Aliko Dangote built the $20 billion refinery with the aim of ending the cycle of Nigeria exporting crude to Europe only for it to be refined and re-imported as costly products. The refinery’s gradual ramp-up is already making Nigeria a net exporter of petroleum products, despite initial challenges with crude sourcing before reaching its full 650,000 bpd nameplate capacity. This effort had initially required significant quantities of overseas crude due to local traders failing to meet demand.
Chairman and founder of the refinery, Aliko Dangote, recently mentioned that the facility had relied heavily on the United States for crude supply, even with existing naira-for-crude deals. The facility anticipates a substantial increase in local oil supply over the coming months.
