Africa’s largest refinery, the Dangote Petroleum Refinery, has initiated tenders to sell two fuel cargoes for export.
Trading sources, privy to the matter, informed Reuters that these are the inaugural exports from the recently commissioned refinery.
The refinery boasting a nameplate capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, was constructed on a peninsula near Lagos, the commercial hub, by Aliko Dangote, the wealthiest individual on the continent.
Dangote has contracted Trafigura for the first shipment, totalling 65,000 metric tons of low-sulphur straight-run fuel oil, scheduled for loading at the end of February, three sources informed Reuters.
According to three more sources, the second tender encompasses approximately 60,000 tons of naphtha. Two of them specified that the tender is slated to conclude on February 15th, while details regarding loading arrangements remain pending.
Energy Source disclosed to OBSERVERSTIMES that regulatory approvals causing a delay in Dangote Petrochemical Refinery’s plan to introduce aviation fuel (Jet A1) and diesel for sale in the Nigerian market in January.
Nairemetrics also learnt that Trafigura Group has sold 2 million barrels of WTI Midland to the Dangote refinery for delivery by the end of February. This marks the first time the refinery buying non-Nigerian crude.
According to reports, the refinery was preparing to deliver its first fuel cargo to the domestic market within weeks.
Meanwhile, industry experts have stated that the two fuels available are typical products obtained by processing light sweet crude through a crude distillation unit (CDU) in a refinery, without additional upgrading capacity.
They have suggested that bringing the upgrading units online could take several months.