Marketers to Meet Dangote Over Fuel Supply

Oil marketers are planning to meet the management of Dangote Petroleum Refinery in order to ensure seamless supply and distribution of refined petroleum products to be produced from the $20bn facility.

Dealers under the aegis of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, stated that they would soon engage officials of the refinery, following plans by Dangote Refinery to start pumping out some refined products this month.

On December 11, 2023, The PUNCH exclusively reported that the Dangote Petroleum Refinery was set to start producing Automotive Gas Oil, also known as diesel, and JetA1 or aviation fuel in January 2024, while the production of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, was being delayed by the supply of crude oil in instalments.

The Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemical Project, a subsidiary of Dangote Industries Limited, is a 650,000 barrels per day crude oil refinery, located in Dangote Industries Free Zone, Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos, Nigeria.

Dangote Petroleum Refinery with the capacity to refine 650,000 barrels of crude oil per day covers an area of approximately 2,635 hectares and is located in the Lekki Free Trade Zone in Lagos.

So far, the facility has received six shipments of one million barrels each of crude oil, and is getting set to start producing refined petroleum products. The plant requires six million barrels of crude, according to officials at the refinery.

“For a 650,000bpd capacity refinery, it requires a minimum of six million barrels to start production, and what we have done now is to receive one million barrels and it is being discharged,” the impeccable source, who pleaded not to be named due to lack of authorisation to speak on the matter, had stated in December when the plant received one million barrels of crude.

“Ultimately, what that (the one million barrels receipt) means is that by January, maybe in the second week, we should start having diesel, after which aviation fuel will come before we now cascade to PMS,” the source stated.

When contacted and asked if marketers had met with officials of the refinery with respect to the supply and distribution of products to be produced by the plant, the Deputy National President, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Zarma Mustapha, said the meeting would be held soon.

“We intend to engage them. We’ve not engaged with them yet, but it is our intention to engage them soon,” he stated.

Meanwhile, Mutapha stated that it was the expectation of marketers that the Dangote and Port Harcourt refineries would see to the steady supply of refined petroleum products in Nigeria.

He said, “We have positive expectations because availability of products is going to be guaranteed. But as regards the prices of refined products, I don’t think the changes are going to be that much.

“If there is going to be price reduction, it is going to be minimal, unless the Federal Government is going to supply the refineries crude at a lower price. But if they are going to sell at the international market price, the reduction in the pump prices may not be much.”

Zarma further noted that independent oil marketers were ready to work with the managers of both the Dangote and Port Harcourt refineries to ensure the smooth flow of products from the plants to other parts of Nigeria.