February 24, 2025
The Dangote Refinery has disclosed that it currently has over 500 million litres of petrol in its reservoir which is enough to meet Nigeria’s domestic consumption.
The President of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, who spoke during a tour of the $20bn Lekki-based facility with the Zambia Minister for Energy, Makozo Chikote on Saturday, said the refinery now produces enough fuel for local consumption and export.
The visiting Zambian official is seeking collaboration with the Dangote refinery founder to help solve his country’s challenge in energy security.
During the tour, Dangote, stated that the refinery currently has N600bn worth of stocks in its tank farm. He explained that the plant would reach its 650,000 barrels per day full production capacity by next month, adding that Nigeria cannot consume up to 50 per cent of its refined products.
“We can satisfy more than the local needs of Nigeria. As we speak, we have more than half a billion litres (of petrol). We have more than N600bn worth of stocks here today in the refinery. We have more than enough. The refinery is producing enough refined products, like gasoline, diesel, and kerosene, to meet 100 per cent of Nigeria’s requirements,” he maintained.
Dangote also revealed that he’s perfecting arrangements to get enough crude to aid the refinery’s ramp-up plans.
“Now we are ramping up production. We must be at our full capacity by next month. But we have to do quite a lot of arrangements in terms of crude supply,” he stated.
The Africa’s richest man, disclosed that refineries across the world are shutting down because of the Dangote refinery. He boasted that no refinery in Africa and across Europe, produces the level of quality fuel produced by the Dangote refinery
He noted that the sulphur content of his fuel could be as low as zero parts per million while the octane number can be 95.
“In terms of quality, there is actually no refinery in Africa, even in Europe that can produce our type of quality. We want to be flexible, you know the laws keep changing.”
Today, they will say 150 parts per million; tomorrow it’s 50 ppm, but we can produce up to zero ppm. This means we can do winter diesel, we can do Euro-5. No refinery around here can do that. When you read the news, you see that a lot of refineries now, especially in Europe, shutting down because of our own refinery. Our refinery is a percentage of the world’s production.
“Obviously, if we pump a lot, some of them will not be able to sell, that’s why in some countries, they will offer them money to just keep dumping. But then, we have to weather that storm up to the time that we will be able to be on our feet,” he added.
READ MORE; Marketers Contemplate Dumpling Dangote Fuel As Imported Petrol Costs Less
Dangote maintained that the local fuel consumption in Nigeria is 40 per cent of the refinery’s total production, stating that the remaining 60 per cent is for export to other countries, especially Africa.
“The maximum local consumption is around 40 per cent, but 60 per cent will be exported. We are making a lot of arrangements with some banks to make sure most of the products are sold within Africa; so that it can be a real African refinery, not done just for us to come and process raw materials and ship the products outside Africa. The problem has always been letters of credit; we are working with Afreximbank to resolve that financing issue,“ he said.
He further stated that, “We have competitive advantages over PMS, diesel, aviation fuel, and others. The consumption of aviation fuel in Africa is very low because we don’t have too many aircraft flying around. PMS is what people use a lot. Here in Nigeria, most discussions are on PMS. You know we just deregulated, and everybody is trying to find his feet. Now that the subsidy is gone, things are ramping up.”
Last week, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory said local refineries could not produce up to 50 per cent of Nigeria’s daily PMS consumption of about 50 million litres per day, stressing that this necessitated the importation of more PMS to cover the shortfall.
READ MORE; Dangote Refinery Increases Petrol Price To N955/Litre
The Zambia Minister for Energy, Chikote informed Dangote that the Zambian government is mandated to safeguard the supply of fuel.
According to him, the nation needs energy security and the Dangote refinery will be important to make that happen.
The energy minister said the country is looking at Dangote as a company to come on board for competitive fuel pricing and to ensure sufficient, reliable, and affordable petroleum products for Zambia.
He explained that the country is creating an enabling environment for private participation in the energy sector.
