Dangote Refinery Resolves Crude Supply Issues, Will Launch Petrol in August.

Alhaji Aliko Dangote, president of the Dangote Refinery, says the refinery is now ready to begin producing petrol in August 2024 after resolving crude oil supply issues with the assistance of the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and the federal government.

Dangote told top journalists in Lagos on Sunday that the federal government’s intervention last week remedied the crude supply issue, which had been affecting the refinery’s petrol supply.

The journalists were on an escorted tour of the refinery, which is located in Lagos’ Lekki Free Trade Zone.

Dangote Industries Limited (DIL) recently expressed concern about attempts by international oil firms (IOCs) to thwart efforts to purchase crude for the refinery.

“While the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) is doing its best to allocate the crude for us, the IOCs are deliberately and willfully frustrating our efforts to buy local crude,” Devakumar Edwin, Vice President of Oil and Gas at DIL, told energy editors in June.

“It appears that the goal is to ensure that our petroleum refinery fails. Either they are deliberately asking for an absurd or excessive premium, or they simply declare that crude is unavailable.

“At some time, we paid $6 more than the market price. This has prompted us to restrict output while also importing oil from countries as far away as the United States, raising our production costs.”

Fertiliser production

Aside from overcoming crude supply concerns and announcing intentions to launch fuel in August, Alhaji Dangote also informed journalists that the refinery’s fertiliser section would resume operations in two weeks.

This would increase farmers’ access to fertiliser for their agriculture goods.

Dangote told around 70 journalists on the refinery tour that there was a huge demand for fertiliser from Nigerians and the rest of Africa, therefore his company had no alternative but to respond favourably.