Page 4 - DMEA Week 04 2022

DMEA COMMENTARY DMEA

Dangote set for

2022 launch as

Nigeria awaits

The refinery has been in the planning for almost
a decade and it is seen reshaping the Nigerian

economic landscape when it launches later this year.

AFRICA A representative of Dangote Refinery has said January 22, Dangote told reporters that nearly
that the exact start date of the new oil-process- all of the work on the oil-processing plant had
ing plant will be dependent on the outcome of a already been finished.
WHAT: testing programme that is due to wrap up late in “Mechanical work on the refinery is com-
Dangote will launch with the third quarter of 2022. plete, and hopefully before the end of third quar-
a throughput capacity of The announcement suggests that the facility ter we should be in the market ... Full production
540,000 bpd, instantly may reach full capacity ahead of February 2023’s can start, maybe, by the end of the year or [the]
becoming Africa’s largest elections, and enabling the outgoing adminis- beginning of 2023,” he was quoted as saying by
refinery. tration of Muhammadu Buhari to depart on a Platts.
high note despite likely leaving his successor to The pre-commissioning of the plant’s pro-
WHY: implement subsidy removal, albeit with some of duction units and export facilities began last
While state-owned the most important groundwork already laid (see month, following the start-up of the fertiliser
refining capacity has next story). plant built together with the refinery.
fallen to zero, modular The plant has been under construction since
refineries have provided Launch date 2013 and was originally due to come online sev-
a welcome boost for “Barring any hitches during this period of the eral years ago.
remote areas. test run of the units, the refinery will start refin- Nigeria’s government took a 20% equity stake
ing crude into [petroleum] products by the in the plant through the national oil company in
WHAT NEXT: fourth quarter of this year,” the official, who was August 2021.
The start of operations not named, told S&P Global Platts on January 24. Under this deal, Nigerian National Petroleum
at Dangote is expected to He was speaking not long after Aliko Dan- Corp. (NNPC) is slated to provide the Dangote
ease strained government gote, the president of Dangote Industries, said refinery with 300,000 bpd of crude oil, equiva-
finances. he expected his holding’s new refinery to begin lent to more than 46% of the feedstock it needs to
operating before the end of September 2022 at an operate at its full capacity of 650,000 bpd.
initial capacity of 540,000 barrels per day (bpd). When finished, the Dangote refinery will
Speaking at a press briefing in Lagos on be capable of turning out enough petroleum

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