Dangote Begins Search for Oil Tanker for Refinery, Sets Start Date

• Dangote Refinery has said that it wants to hire an oil tanker for a three-month contract to deliver supplies from West Africa to the refinery
• The refinery stated that the contract, set to begin in mid-March, could be renewed for another three months
• This could be an indication that the refinery is ramping up operations faster than anticipated

Legit.ng journalist Zainab Iwayemi has over three years of experience covering the Economy, Technology, and Capital Market.

In the most recent indication that the physical oil market is getting tighter, Dangote's mega-refinery is moving to secure crude imports.

Dangote Industries Ltd is looking to hire an oil tanker for a three-month contract to deliver supplies from West Africa to the refinery.

According to a document obtained by Bloomberg, the service, which is to begin in mid-March, might be extended for a further three months.

Read also

Diesel nears N2,000 Per litre as NNPC sets timeline to end petrol import

This means that the largest refinery in Africa, which just started, is ramping up operations faster than anticipated.

The development is expected to strengthen futures prices, which have risen to their highest level since November, and tighten a market on the verge of oversupply.

The refinery began operations in January and has the capacity to process 650,000 barrels of oil per day.

In order to manufacture gasoline during the first phase of startup, when it hopes to run at 350,000 barrels per day, it has tapped into grades from the US and West Africa.

In a recent report, S&P Global estimated that the Dangote oil refinery may not reach a full complement of its operations until somewhere around the middle of 2025.

Read also

Analysts see naira nearing N1,000/$ in 2024 as Access, GTB, others get new interest rate

This contradicted earlier projections that the Dangote Refinery may start producing 650,000 barrels per day at full capacity by the second quarter of 2024.

In an update on Nigeria, the new report stated that the recent partial commencement of operations was critical to the growth of the Nigerian economy.

Dangote refinery sets date to sell fuel

Legit.ng reported that the world's single train refinery, the Dangote Refinery, has made an essential move by issuing tenders to sell its first two fuel cargoes for export.

The development is an essential step for the newly launched refinery, which has generated a buzz in the industry.

A Reuters report quotes three sources saying that the first cargo of 65,000 metric tons of sulphur straight-run fuel oil, which Dangote has awarded to Trafigura, is due to load at the end of February.

Source: Legit.ng