Revealed: Jan. 15, 2024 at 6:59 a.m. ET
ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Africa’s largest oil refinery has begun manufacturing in Nigeria, the corporate has stated, ending a yearslong await a plant that analysts stated Monday might increase refining capability in a area closely reliant on imported petroleum merchandise.
The $19 billion facility, which has a capability to supply 650,000 barrels per day, has began to supply diesel and aviation gasoline, the Dangote Petroleum Refinery firm reported Saturday. As Nigeria’s first privately owned oil refinery, the challenge “is a game-changer…
ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Africa’s largest oil refinery has begun manufacturing in Nigeria, the corporate has stated, ending a yearslong await a plant that analysts stated Monday might increase refining capability in a area closely reliant on imported petroleum merchandise.
The $19 billion facility, which has a capability to supply 650,000 barrels per day, has began to supply diesel and aviation gasoline, the Dangote Petroleum Refinery firm reported Saturday. As Nigeria’s first privately owned oil refinery, the challenge “is a game-changer for our nation,” it added.
Nigeria is one in every of Africa’s high oil producers however imports refined petroleum merchandise for its personal use. The nation’s oil and pure gasoline sector has struggled for a few years, and most of its state-run refineries function far beneath capability due to the poor upkeep.
The Dangote refinery is “not a silver bullet” for Nigeria’s power disaster, in response to Olufola Wusu, an oil and gasoline skilled who was a part of a crew that helped assessment Nigeria’s nationwide gasoline coverage. “However it’s an effective way to revive the sector … and can assist transfer Nigeria from being a significant importer of refined petroleum merchandise to being self-reliant in home refining capability.”
Described by the corporate because the world’s largest single-train refinery, the personal refinery is owned by Africa’s richest man, Nigerian industrialist Aliko Dangote. It’s situated on the outskirts of Lagos, Nigeria’s financial hub, the place it operates alongside a fertilizer plant.
The plant is predicted to fulfill 100% of Nigeria’s wants for gasoline, diesel, kerosene, and aviation jet gasoline at full manufacturing capability, Dangote stated final yr when the ability was opened. At the very least 40% of the oil merchandise made there additionally could be out there for export, the corporate stated,.
The plant obtained about 6 million barrels of crude so removed from Nigeria’s state oil agency, NNPC Restricted, to kickstart its operation, though it might take months earlier than the refinery reaches full capability, in response to analysts.
Some residents have expressed hope that the brand new plant would quickly assist scale back shopper gasoline costs, which have tripled from a yr in the past after the federal government stopped decadeslong subsidies,
Analysts have stated any influence on costs would nonetheless rely on trade traits corresponding to the price of crude, authorities interventions corresponding to subsidies, and the native forex’s alternate price to the greenback.
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