Dangote Refinery to receive first crude shipment, begins operation soon
The first crude feedstock for Dangote Refinery is scheduled to arrive at the plant on Thursday.
A source at the refinery confirmed that the ship, codenamed MT OTIS and owned by Trafigura, is en route to the 650,000 barrels a day (bpd) facility.
The shipment, which is over 900,000 barrels of Nigeria’s Agbami crude grade, is on its way to Lekki, the nearest land port to Dangote’s offshore crude receiving terminal.
It is scheduled to arrive on December 7 at around 19.00GMT (20.00WAT).
Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, in August 2021, acquired a 20 percent minority equity stake in the Dangote Refinery.
The 650,000 bpd capacity refinery was inaugurated by former President Muhammadu Buhari in May 2023.
Shortly before the inauguration of the refinery, the NNPC, which owns a 20 percent stake in the refinery, announced that it would supply 300,000 barrels of crude oil to the facility.
But in September, Devakumar Edwin, executive director of Dangote Group, said the national oil company would not be able to supply the refinery until November.
However, in a turn of events, the NNPC is expected to allocate six million barrels of crude oil to Dangote Refinery in December 2023.
Aliko Dangote had said the refinery has secured a license to refine more than 300,000 barrels of Nigerian crude per day and will begin to process petrol “soon”.
