Alhaji Aliko Dangote, President of the Dangote Refinery, said the refinery would begin producing fuel in August 2024 after resolving crude oil supply concerns with the help of the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and the Federal Government.
Dangote told top journalists in Lagos on Sunday that the crude supply issue, which had hampered the refinery’s petrol delivery, was rectified last week after the federal government intervened.
The journalists were on an escorted tour of the refinery, which is located in Lagos’ Lekki Free Trade Zone.
Dangote Industries Limited (DIL) recently issued a statement warning of attempts by international oil corporations (IOCs) to stymie efforts to purchase crude for refinery.
“While the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC)are trying their best to allocate the crude for us, the IOCs are deliberately and willfully frustrating our efforts to buy the local crude,” the Vice President, Oil and Gas at DIL, Devakumar Edwin, told energy editors in June.
“It seems that the objective is to ensure that our Petroleum Refinery fails. It is either they are deliberately asking for ridiculous/humongous premium or, they simply state that crude is not available.
“At some point, we paid $6 over and above the market price. This has forced us to reduce our output as well as import crude from countries as far as the US, increasing our cost of production.”
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 Nigeria and the rest of Africa, therefore his firm had no alternative but to respond positively.