OPEC Says Dangote Refinery Will Account For Over Half of Africa’s Refining Additions

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has revealed that the Dangote Refinery, a $19-billion integrated petrochemical refinery complex owned by Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote, will account for more than half of Africa’s medium-term refining additions.

The statement was made in the organization’s recently released report, World Oil Outlook, and comes more than a month after the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), Nigeria’s sole entity licensed to operate in the petroleum industry, announced that the integrated petrochemical refinery complex had been rescheduled to begin operations in mid-2023.

With Africa’s medium-term distillation additions estimated at 1.2 million barrels per day, OPEC revealed that Dangote’s $19-billion integrated petrochemical refinery complex, with a capacity of 650, 000 barrels per day, will account for half of the continent’s medium-term refining additions.

“In Africa, medium-term distillation additions are estimated at around 1.2 million barrels per day,” OPEC said, adding that the refinery accounts for more than half of this figure (650,000 barrels per day).

The refinery is the largest of all the refinery additions expected across Africa in the medium term, according to the intergovernmental organization, and other expected refining projects in Africa include the 100,000-barrel-per-day refinery in Soyo, Angola, the 110,000-barrel-per-day Hassi Messaoud refinery expansion in Algeria, and the 160,000-barrel-per-day Midor refinery expansion in Egypt.

These medium-term additions would not only meet increasing demand but would also reduce product imports in some countries.

It will also result in an increase in refinery throughput from 1.8 million barrels per day in 2021 to 4.8 million barrels per day in 2045.

Dangote’s refinery plant has long been hampered by a variety of factors, including a lack of access to foreign currency, an ailing economy, and the COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted supply chains and caused refinery equipment to be delayed.

The $19-billion refinery is expected to supply 100 percent of Nigeria’s demand for all refined goods, while also having a surplus of each of these products for export, creating an annual market for $11 billion in Nigerian petroleum products.