The Dangote Petroleum Refinery plans to stop importing crude oil by December 2025, aiming to replace hundreds of thousands of barrels per day of imported crude with domestic supply.
A Bloomberg report quoted Devakumar Edwin, Vice President at Dangote Industries, who oversees the 650,000-barrel-per-day facility in Lagos, saying that contracts with foreign crude suppliers will expire, allowing the refinery to shift to sourcing feedstock locally.
Edwin stated that the refinery had previously imported crude from Brazil, Angola, Ghana, and Equatorial Guinea. However, he explained that “improved relations between the refinery, local oil traders and the government will result in a steady supply of Nigerian crude.”
The report noted that in June, the plant received about half of its crude from local producers, who will be able to supply more as their foreign commitments wind down.
Edwin said, “We expect some of the long-term contracts will expire. Personally, and as a company, we expect that before the end of the year, we can transition 100 per cent to local crude.”
Data compiled by Bloomberg revealed that in June, the refinery sourced 53 per cent of its crude from domestic producers and 47 per cent from the United States.
Edwin added that the plant is currently processing 550,000 barrels of crude per day.
According to cargo allocations seen by Bloomberg News, Dangote was scheduled to receive five cargoes from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited in July, with the same amount set for August. Each cargo contains nearly one million barrels of crude.
Aliko Dangote constructed the $20 billion refinery to end the export of Nigerian crude for refining abroad and the subsequent importation of refined products.
The gradual ramp-up of the refinery has already enabled Nigeria to become a net exporter of petroleum products, despite initial challenges in securing adequate domestic crude to reach its full capacity of 650,000 barrels per day. This led to the refinery relying heavily on foreign crude.
Dangote recently stated that despite a naira-for-crude deal, the refinery had been largely dependent on crude from the United States.
The refinery expects a notable increase in local crude supply over the coming months.
