SP Global has stated that the first crude feedstock for Dangote’s 650,000 b/d refinery has arrived in the nation according to market sources and ship tracking data.
After years of delays, the analytical firm said that the development showed that fuel production at the new $19 billion complex is finally going to commence.
The OTIS ship reportedly loaded 950,000 barrels of Agbami crude on December 6 and unloaded it at the refinery’s terminal yesterday.
As the massive new factory begins to ramp up operations, the Suezmax vessel, chartered by the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Company, is the first of Dangote’s inaugural crude supplies, a West African oil dealer said.
The privately owned refinery was officially completed in May, but due to a lack of indigenous crude feedstock, it has yet to produce any oil products.
NNPC, which owns a 20% share in the refinery, recently agreed to supply the refinery with 6 million barrels of crude oil as feedstock in December.
Agbami operated by Chevron is one of Nigeria’s major deepwater operations, pumping around 100,000 b/d in the central Niger Delta. According to Platts’ Periodic Table of Oil, Agbami produces light sweet crude with a gravity of 47.9 API and a sulfur level of 0.04 percent. The crude is noted in the market for producing a high percentage of naphtha and kerosene.
According to the oil trader, NNPCL has leased a number of additional vessels to transfer additional crude shipments from offshore fields to the refinery later this month.
The start-up of the refinery has been continually postponed since the project was announced in 2013, despite the fact that the majority of the essential units were built in 2019.
The crude distillation machine has been developed to handle three Nigerian crude grades — Escravos, Bonny Light, and Forcados — at the same time. According to previous Dangote presentations, if fully operational, the facility will produce 327,000 b/d of gasoline, 244,000 b/d of gasoil/diesel, 56,000 b/d of jet fuel/kerosene, and 290,000 mt/year of propane/LPG.
