According to SP Global, which cited market sources and ship tracking data, the first crude feedstock for Dangote’s 650,000 b/d refinery has arrived in the nation.
After years of delays, the analytical firm claimed that the development showed that fuel production at the new $19 billion complex is finally going to commence. The OTIS ship reportedly loaded 950,000 barrels of Agbami oil on December 6 and unloaded it at the refinery’s terminal on Thursday.
As the massive new factory begins to ramp up operations, the Suezmax vessel, chartered by the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Company, is the first of Dangote’s inaugural crude supplies, a West African oil dealer claimed. Although the privately held refinery was declared finished in May, it has not yet produced any oil products due to a lack of domestic crude feedstock.
NNPC, which owns a 20 per cent stake in the refinery, recently agreed to supply 6 million barrels of crude oil as feedstock to the refinery in December.
Operated by Chevron, Agbami is one of Nigeria’s largest deepwater developments pumping about 100,000 b/d in the central Niger Delta. Agbami produces light sweet crude with a gravity of 47.9 API and a sulfur content of 0.04 per cent, according to Platts’ Periodic Table of Oil. The crude is known in the market for yielding a large proportion of naphtha and kerosene.
NNPCL has chartered a number of other tankers to transport further crude shipments from offshore fields to the refinery later this month, the oil trader said.
The refinery’s startup has been repeatedly delayed since the project was unveiled in 2013, although most of the key units were installed in 2019.
The crude distillation unit has been designed to process 12 crudes at one time and has been engineered to process three Nigerian crude grades — Escravos, Bonny Light and Forcados. Once fully operational, the plant will yield 327,000 b/d of gasoline, 244,000 b/d of gasoil/diesel, 56,000 b/d of jet fuel/kerosene, as well as 290,000 mt/year of propane/LPG, according to previous Dangote presentations.
