The Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) has expressed interest to lift refined petroleum products from the Dangote Refinery, Lagos, which is at the completion stage.
The Dangote Group made the announcement in a statement posted on its website on Sunday and obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.
The statement said the marketers made the request during a recent visit to the site of the 650,000 barrels-per-day single train refinery in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos.
Speaking after the visit, Mr. Adetunji Oyebanji, the Chairman of MOMAN, said the refinery would help remove the various bottlenecks associated with the importation of petroleum products into the country.
Oyebanji, also the Managing Director 11 Plc, said the marketers were eagerly waiting for the completion of the refinery, which was expected to make Nigeria self-sufficient in petroleum refining.
He said: “It is our desire to see our members buy refined products from Dangote Refinery when it comes on stream.
“We are open to discuss commercial terms with the management of Dangote Oil Refinery regarding lifting of refined products.
“The impact it will have on the market chain will be changed from a situation whereby a marketer will have to wait for four to five months through imports lead time before getting products.
“The turn-around time is going to be much faster. It will be more efficient.
“Getting products from Dangote Refinery will also give us the possibility of getting the product by vessels or by trucking.”
According to him, this is going to have a positive impact on the way we do business in the downstream sector.
“Hopefully, we believe Dangote Refinery is going to result in delivering decent margins for our members, enough margins for us to begin to rebuild or/upgrade the assets in the industry,” he added.
Oyebanji noted that the Dangote Refinery would move Nigeria from an import-dependent nation to self-sufficiency in petroleum products.
“This refinery will move us from import dependent in petroleum product to becoming totally self-sufficient.
“It will move Nigeria from a situation whereby all the products that we consume will be available locally.
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“It is going to be a very big development and a game-changer for us and we are looking forward to its completion,” the chairman added.
Oyebanji expressed hope that the coming on stream of Dangote Refinery would facilitate the deregulation of the downstream oil sector.
He, therefore, urged the Federal Government to encourage more investors who have obtained licences to establish private refineries in the country.
“If you have a policy that allows you issue significant numbers of licences and only a few are utilised, this tells you that there is a problem somewhere, which requires government’s attention.
“Government needs to have a discussion with the licencees to find out their challenges and how it can be of assistance to them,” Oyebanji said.
Chief Operations Officer, Dangote Oil Refining Company, Mr Giuseppe Surace, told the marketers that the refinery was designed to process a variety of light and medium grades of crude, including petrol and diesel as well as jet fuel and polypropylene.
He said the refinery was billed to produce up to 50 million litres of petrol and 15 million litres of diesel a day, roughly 10.4 million tonnes of the product, 4.6 million tonnes of diesel, and four million tonnes of jet fuel yearly.
According to him, this is in addition to having a fertiliser plant, which will utilise the refinery by-products as raw materials.
He disclosed that the refinery which has recorded 90 per cent completion, was expected to address the challenge of petroleum product importation in Nigeria and other African countries.
He said, “If you look at the overall percentage completion, we have achieved good, considerable progress. But that overall includes engineering and design, which is 100 per cent over.
“Procurement is about 98 per cent over. So, it covers various aspects.”
NAN
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