The Dangote Oil Refinery is now set to commence fuel production as the first crude shipment arrived at the facility on Thursday.
S&P Global confirmed this in a terse statement.
It stated that the OTIS tanker, carrying a 950,000 barrels of Nigeria’s Agbami crude, set sail on December 6.
The Suezmax tanker, chartered by the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited symbolises the initial crude supply to Dangote’s state-of-the-art refinery as it gears up for production.
“The tanker is expected to arrive on December 7 around 8 p.m.; this shipment marks the initiation of crude supplies for the refinery’s operations,” the statement said.
According to S&P Global, the tanker was en route to Lekki, Lagos State, which is the nearest land port to Dangote’s offshore crude receiving terminal.
The NNPC Ltd, In its bid to attain energy security in the country and boost domestic refining, was set to deliver six million barrels of crude oil to the refinery in December.
The oil company has already taken an equity stake in the Dangote refinery and will start supplying crude oil to the facility.
On November 26, Aliko Dangote confirmed that the refinery would begin operations in December 2023.
According to Dangote, the long-awaited refinery was starting with 350,000 barrels a day, and also confirmed that a deal had already been clinched for the first cargo of about 6 million barrels of crude for delivery in December 2023.
Section 109 of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021 stipulates domestic crude oil supply obligation to refineries, including the Dangote Refinery as well as NNPC refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna and the modular refineries scattered all over the country.
The section also provides that the supply of crude oil to the domestic market shall be on a willing-buyer-and-willing-seller basis. [With report by PSN]
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