
Failure of local suppliers to meet demand has forced the Dangote Petroleum Refinery to now buy 12 million barrels of crude oil from United States for its refinery operations.
Report coming from the giant refinery in Lagos said that lack of local supply has hindered the new $20 billion refinery to reach full refining capacity.
Recall that the refinery had earlier scheduled to reach its 650,000 barrels per day capacity in June this year, 2025.
Sources said that low local crude supply from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has however posed special challenge to the attainment of the schedule.
They said that the 12 million barrels of crude has already left the United States and will land in Nigeria next month.
According to the news from African Report, quoting an inside source: “About 12 million barrels of crude have departed the US and should arrive in Nigeria by February.”
Dangote Petroleum Refinery is said to be importing more crude oil as supply from the NNPC becomes insufficient for fuel production at the $20 billion Lekki-based facility.
Officials at the plant said that the facility has ramped up production to about 500,000 barrels per day, with the target of hitting the 650,000bpd mark by June this year.
The NNPC is reportedly struggling to supply 350,000bpd to the Dangote refinery from the 450,000bpd crude meant for Nigeria’s local consumption.
With its current production capacity of 500,000bpd, officials said there is a need to look beyond the shores of Nigeria for the feedstock.
It was said that the feedstock needed by the refinery daily cannot be solely supplied by the state-owned oil company, NNPC.
In July 2024, President Bola Tinubu had ordered the NNPC to sell crude oil to local refineries in naira.
According to the crude oil production forecast of producing oil companies and the refining requirement of functional refineries in Nigeria signed by the Chief Executive of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, Gbenga Komolafe, the Dangote refinery would require 550,000 barrels of a blend of Nigerian crude oil daily, 17.05 million barrels monthly, and 99.55 million barrels between January and June 2025.
The Dangote refinery is already building eight more tanks to store imported crude. The facility is planning to stockpile imported crude oil as local supplies become unreliable.
Officials of the refinery were quoted as saying that low crude supply from the NNPC “is driving import dependence.”
The building of eight additional tanks will see crude storage capacity at the refinery jump by 41.67 per cent to 3.4 billion litres.
“Importing crude from other countries instead of buying locally means that our crude stockpiles will have to be higher,” the Vice President in charge of the oil and gas business at Dangote Industries, Devakumar Edwin, was quoted as having said recently.
In May 2024, the refinery reportedly issued a term tender for the purchase of two million barrels of West Texas Intermediate Midland crude monthly for 12 months starting in July last year, amounting to 24 million barrels of crude in one year.