Page 5 - Downstream Monitor - MEA Week 43

DMEA CommentaRy DMEA
multi-billion dollar international debt package six years ago and Dangote said last year that the refinery would be completed in 2019 and com- missioned in 2020.
Dependence on Dangote
The Dangote facility cannot come online quickly enough for Abuja. Data released in May by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC) showed that the country’s four state-owned refineries were operating at just 5.55% of their nameplate capacity.
The NNPC’s four facilities have a com- bined nameplate capacity of 445,000 bpd; the Kaduna facility can produce 110,000 bpd, Warri 125,000 bpd and the two Port harcourt units, built roughly 25 years apart, have a joint total of 210,000 bpd.
however, the latest figures show that 5.55% was a six-month high. “The lower operational performance recorded is attributed to the ongoing revamping of the refineries, which is expected to further enhance capacity utilisation when completed,” NNPC said.
After years of under-investment, the ageing facilities typically run at less than 10% of capacity and a general update on operations by NNPC in January this year disclosed that full turnaround maintenance (TAM) at the plants had not been carried out for 42 years.
This has meant that imports are relied upon to meet more than 80% of demand and NNPC added that a refining capacity of 1.52mn bpd would be required to meet Nigerian demand by 2025.
Speaking to Downstream MeA in late July, several senior industry sources said that gasoline and diesel were unlikely to be produced for sev- eral years, while expressing their doubts about
the volume of fuel that will be made available locally when the refinery is fully operational.
“There are many reasons why large inter- national oil companies [IOCs] have backed away from investments in refining in Nigeria,” said one source on condition of anonymity. he added: “Dangote has done great things for this country, but he is a pragmatist and that has served him well. If there is one man who can realise the ambition of refining Nigerian crude for domestic consumption, it is him, but do not underestimate the influence of the fuel market- ing racket.”™
The Dangote atmospheric tower en route to Lekki
Week 43 31•October•2019 w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m
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