Dangote Refinery Prepares For Operations As First Crude Shipment Arrives

After overcoming a series of delays, the Dangote Refinery, an ambitious $19 billion project in Nigeria, is set to commence fuel production as the first shipment of crude arrives at the facility. This milestone marks a significant moment for the country’s oil industry.

According to industry sources and tanker tracking data reported by S&P Global on its website, spglobal.com, the OTIS tanker, carrying a cargo of 950,000 barrels of Nigeria’s Agbami crude, embarked on its journey on December 6. The vessel is currently en route to Lekki, the nearest land port to Dangote’s offshore crude receiving terminal, with an expected arrival on December 7 around 8 pm. This shipment signifies the commencement of crude supplies for the refinery’s operations.

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

Despite the refinery officially reaching completion in May, the lack of domestic crude feedstock had hindered oil product manufacturing. To address this, the NNPC, which holds a 20% stake in the refinery, recently entered into an agreement to supply 6 million barrels of crude oil as feedstock to the Dangote refinery in December, aiming to jumpstart operations.

Agbami, operated by Chevron, stands as one of Nigeria’s major deepwater developments, with a daily output of approximately 100,000 barrels per day in the central Niger Delta. Renowned for its light sweet crude qualities, with a specific gravity measuring 47.9 API and sulphur content of 0.04%, Agbami yields significant proportions of naphtha and kerosene.