THE Dangote Refinery has officially commenced operations, with plans to supply 25 million litres of petrol to the Nigerian market this September, according to the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA).
The Regulatory Authority made this known in a statement on Tuesday, September 3, that this will rise to 30 million litres from September.
The NMDPRA said it met with the NNPCL to agree on local crude supply to the refinery.
“At the NMDPRA headquarters in Abuja, NNPCL reached an agreement to commence crude oil sale and supply to Dangote Refinery in local currency.
“The refinery is now poised to supply an initial 25 million litres of PMS into the domestic market this September. It will subsequently increase this amount to 30 million litres daily from October 2024,” the NMDPRA said on its X.
The ICIR reports that the Dangote Refinery, located in Lagos, has been in the spotlight since its commissioning earlier this year.
The facility, which has a production capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, is anticipated to transform Nigeria’s oil sector by processing crude oil locally rather than relying on expensive imports.
Dangote speaks…
In a live broadcast on Tuesday, Dangote said the supply of petrol into Nigeria would change the country’s energy landscape.
Expressing gratitude to President Bola Tinubu for approving the sale of crude in naira to local refineries, Dangote noted that many people doubted the $20 billion refinery would ever begin petrol production.
He added that the capacity would meet local demands and those of countries of the sub-Saharan Africa
The ICIR reported that sales of crude oil to the Dangote Refinery in naira will commence on October 1, 2024, according to the minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy, Wale Edun.
The directive came after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) intervened in the accusations and counter-accusations between the Dangote refinery and the regulatory authorities in the oil sector over the selling of crude to the refinery.
The ICIR reports that the management of the Dangote refinery had lamented not getting crude oil supply to its refinery, forcing the company to source crude from the United States and other countries to serve its 650,000-capacity nameplate refinery.
Usman Mustapha is a solution journalist with International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: [email protected]. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M