The first crude feedstock for Dangote’s 650,000 b/d refinery has arrived the country, according to SP Global quoting market sources and tanker tracking data.
According to the research group, the development indicates that after years of delays, fuel production at the new $19 billion complex is now due to begin.
The OTIS ship carried a 950,000 barrel cargo of Agbami crude on December 6 and released it at the refinery’s terminal on Thursday, according to the report.
According to a West African oil dealer, the Suezmax tanker, chartered by the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Company, is the first of Dangote’s inaugural crude supplies as the massive new plant begins operations.
The privately owned refinery was officially completed in May but has yet to make 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.