The Dangote refinery in Nigeria, Africa's largest, has started producing fuels, the Dangote Group of Africa's richest man, Aliko Dangote, said This weekend will see the commissioning of the refinery, which has been delayed for years.
“Dangote Petroleum Refinery has commenced production of diesel and aviation fuel,” the group said in a statement, adding that the new refinery was “a game changer for our country.”
The refinery can load 2,900 trucks per day at its truck loading portals. The refinery's products comply with Euro V specifications. The refinery design complies with World Bank, US EPA, European emissions standards and DPR emissions/wastewater standards, the Nigerian group said.
The refinery, which began operations last year, received 1 million barrels of Agbami crude from Shell's trading unit in early December. The cargo was one of 6 million barrels of crude oil that will enable the refinery to start operating.
Earlier this month, the refinery received the sixth cargo of crude oil, which would enable it to begin initial runs, Akin Omole, managing director of Dangote Ports Operations, told Argus last week.
The 650,000 barrel per day (bpd) capacity refinery will meet 100% of Nigeria's demand for all refined petroleum products and also have a surplus of each of these products for export.
The project, which cost around $20 billion after initial cost estimates were between $12 billion and $14 billion, has faced years of delays.
Nigeria hopes the new refinery will ease chronic fuel shortages that have turned Africa's biggest oil producer into a fuel importer. Nigeria, OPEC's biggest crude oil producer in Africa, has relied on fuel imports because its refineries lacked capacity and some of them needed to be upgraded in recent years.
The Dangote Refinery expects to export diesel to customers in Europe and gasoline to Latin American and African markets. However, according to analysts at Facts Global Energy, production of Euro V gasoline, that is, the gasoline that meets European emissions standards, is not expected until the end of 2024.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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