Dangote Refinery Set To Roll, Receives 950,000 Barrel of Crude

MICHAEL AKINOLA

The mammoth $19 billion Dangote Refinery project in Nigeria, is finally poised to commence fuel production as the first crude shipment arrives at the facility, marking a significant milestone for the country’s oil industry.

S&P Global, in a report said that the OTIS tanker, carrying a 950,000 barrel cargo of Nigeria’s Agbami crude, set sail on December 6 and is currently en route to Lekki, the nearest land port to Dangote’s offshore crude receiving terminal.

The tanker is expected to arrive on December 7 around 8pm, this shipment marks the initiation of crude supplies for the refinery’s operations.

The Suezmax tanker, chartered by the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), symbolises the initial crude supply to Dangote’s state-of-the-art refinery as it gears up to initiate production, revealed a West African oil trader familiar with the matter, the S&P report said.

According to experts, it is surely a new dawn for Nigeria as Dangote refinery receives the first crude oil supply from the NNPCL.

The refinery, funded by Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, will transform oil trading in the Atlantic Basin and remove a lucrative outlet for fuels produced in Europe and the United States that have for years powered the cars, trucks and generators on the continent.

Already, the Port Harcourt refinery is expected to come back on track before the end of the year.

BUA Refinery is also being built in Akwa Ibom State while Kaduna refinery will be rehabilitated also.

“This is surely going to be turning point for Nigeria’s economy. The new dawn has begun,” an energy expert said.