The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) is expected to supply the 650,000 barrels-per-day Dangote Petroleum Refinery with five shipments of December-loading crude, according to a report by petroleumprice.ng. 

Quoting industry traders, it was revealed that one of the consignments is expected to be delayed into early January.

According to market sources, the refinery will lift one cargo each of light sweet Amenam and Bonny Light crude, as well as medium sweet CJ Blend and Forcados.

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A fifth consignment of light sweet Qua Iboe will load in late December but arrive about ten days later, in January.

The allocation follows similar term deliveries in October and November, when Dangote also received five monthly cargoes from NNPC.

Tracking data show that Nigerian crude accounted for a larger share of Dangote’s 445,000 b/d processed feedstock in October, overtaking imports of U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI).

The company reportedly purchased three additional October spot-market cargoes, up from just one in September.

While WTI often presents a cost advantage even after the longer voyage to Nigeria, local grades become more competitive when transatlantic freight costs rise or when European demand for Nigerian barrels softens.

Daily Trust reports that Dangote Group had unveiled plans to double its refining capacity by increasing the production from 650,000 bpd to 1.4m bpd.

There have been mixed feelings over the availability of crude feedstock to meet the capacity; the fear dismissed by the President of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote during a recent press conference to unveil the new plan.

Our correspondent reports that the Federal Government had unveiled a naira-for-crude arrangement to improve crude supply for domestic refineries by paying in naira instead of dollars.

However, since the naira-for-crude programme commenced, Dangote Industries has repeatedly stated that it is yet to receive sufficient volumes of Nigerian crude to run at full capacity, even under the federal government’s crude-for-naira arrangement.

Meanwhile, experts at the recent panel discussion on “Dangote, Oil and Power in Nigeria” convened virtually under the Toyin Falola Interview Series called for support for Dangote refinery and other local players in the downstream sector to promote industrialization.

‘Nigeria’s 4 refineries have only churned out 144,000 barrels’

One of the panelists, Dr. Mobolaji Aluko said Dangote had done what Nigeria has not been able to do for decades.

He disclosed that Nigeria in the last 65 years had only been able to refine 144,000 barrels of crude oil with the four state-owned refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna.

Aluko who stated that he worked in a refinery Port Harcourt in the 70s when the refineries were working stated that the Dangote Refinery is a strategic asset that must be protected.

“It’s a strategic asset and it must be protected for the nation to move forward, if you don’t have it you must buy it, and if you have it, it is ridiculous for you again to have to import.

“As far as Dangote Refinery is concerned, the fact of the matter is that for 60 years, 65 years that we have been a country, we only tried to refine 144,000 barrels of oil per day in four refineries and we’ve been struggling to have that, and here comes the person who invested $20 billion to do 650,000 barrels per day, that is four times what our four refineries are trying to do and the fact that they’ve recently announced plans to double that to 1.4 million barrels per day that is to be commended.”

The expert advised the regulator not to regulate a new baby with “a heavy hand,” adding, “I think the best that we can do as a nation is to support him by all means necessary. There is no doubt that there is fear of monopoly, there is no doubt that there is fear of worker’s abuse, there is no doubt that all the issues of monopoly are there but we have to look at other industries whether he has not allowed other players to participate…”

On his part, Prof. Jibrin Ibrahim stated that such an industry must not be sabotaged and at the same time must be supported because it is the pathway to Nigeria’s industrialization.

“It is really important having gone through decades of struggling to get the Nigerian state to fix the refineries,” he stated, adding that he had joined others in protest against the bad state of the state-owned refineries.

“My position is that I am a Dangote fan and I have not always been a Dangote fan. I had a long transition from being a Dangote hater to a Dangote fan and that transition took 40 years,” he stated.

On his part, Labour leader, Owei Lakemfa said, “We would not allow a situation where workers become slaves. Let Dangote face his business and let the workers face their business.”