Dangote Refinery Pushes Back Fuel Supply Date to August 2024
In a sudden turn of events, Aliko Dangote, the owner of Dangote Refinery, has announced that fuel supply in the Nigerian market will now commence in August 2024, a six-month delay from the initially announced mid-July 2024 date.
The delayed timeline is attributed to the resolution of the refinery’s crude oil supply issues, courtesy of the intervention of the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and the Nigerian federal government. According to Dangote, the crude supply challenge was successfully resolved last week.
The journalists who took a guided tour of the 650,000-barrel-per-day refinery, located at the Lekki Free Trade Zone in Lagos, got a glimpse of the refinery’s progress. Outside fuel supply, the refinery’s fertilizer unit is set to resume production within the next two weeks, providing farmers with a much-needed boost in accessing essential fertilizers for their farm products.
Ramping up production is expected to reach 500 kilobars per day (kbpd) by next August, 550 kbpd by the end of the year, and 650 kbpd by Q1 2025. Additionally, gasoline production is expected to commence in July, with sales starting from August.
The news comes as Dangote Refinery aims to become a significant player in the global fuel market. The refinery was commissioned on May 22, 2023, marking a major milestone in Nigeria’s drive to reduce its reliance on imported fuel.
Another development is the change in stakeholding between NNPCL and Dangote Refinery. The company announced that NNPCL’s stake has decreased from 20% to 7.2%.
