Bloomberg, a financial data and media company, has placed the Dangote Refinery higher than the ten biggest refineries in Europe. Based on statistics from the business news portal, the refinery is larger than several refineries in Europe. 650,000 barrels of petroleum products may be refined daily at the $20 billion refinery located on the Lekki-Epe Expressway in Lagos State.
This refinery has a capacity of about 246,000 bpd, which is higher than Shell’s Pernis Refinery in the Netherlands, based on the information our writer viewed on Thursday.
It further said that, with an installed capacity of 404,000bpd, the Pernis Refinery is the biggest refinery in Europe. 380,000 people may be accommodated at the BP Rotterdam Refinery in the Netherlands.
Bloomberg also reported that the GOI Energy ISAB Refinery in Italy was built with a refining capacity of 360,000bpd. Also, the TotalEnergies Antwerp refining facility in Belgium can refine 338,000bpd.
Others listed in the report were the Orlen Plock Refinery in Poland with 327,000bpd; Shell’s Rheinland in Germany with 327,000bpd; Miro Refinery in Germany with 310,000 capacity; and the ExxonMobil Anterwep Refinery in Belgium with 307,000 capacity.
It added that the Saras Sarroch Refinery in Italy had 300,000 capacity; the ExxonMobil Fawley in England had 270,000bpd capacity.
The Bloomberg report described the Dangote Refinery as a ‘game changer’ and said it was taking advantage of cheaper US oil imports for as much as a third of its feedstock as it started up.
According to analysts, the refinery has been shipping products in recent weeks while readying two units to enable petrol output, which will deliver a long-promised transformation of the fuel market in Nigeria and the region.
“Dangote is going to influence Atlantic Basin gasoline markets this summer and for the rest of the year,” an oil expert, Alan Gelder, told Bloomberg.
According to the average estimate of analysts at WoodMac, FGE, and Citac, the refinery is running at about 300,000 barrels a day, nearly half its nameplate capacity.
The complex has started shipping jet fuel, diesel, and naphtha as it widens to a full slate of products.
Reuters recently reported that the Dangote oil refinery could end a decades-long petrol trade from Europe to Africa, worth $17 billion a year.
Reuters, quoting analysts and traders, said the Dangote refinery was heaping pressure on European refineries already at risk of closure from heightened competition, adding that the refinery would be the largest in Africa and Europe when it reaches full capacity.
About a third of Europe’s 1.33mbpd average petrol exports in 2023 went to West Africa, a bigger chunk than any other region, with most of those exports ending up in Nigeria, Reuters said, quoting Kpler data.
Dangote Refinery has begun selling diesel into the Nigerian market, crashing the pump price from N1,600 to N940 in less than a month.
