*Dangote Petroleum Refinery says the company is expecting about 12 million barrels of crude oil from the United States to ramp up oil production to attain its planned 650,000 barrels per day capacity by June 2025

Alexander Davis | 绿帽献妻

The Dangote Petroleum Refinery has said the company is expecting about 12 million barrels of crude oil from the United States (US).

The company, in a statement, disclosed that it resorted to crude importation, as local supply challenges have hindered the new $20 billion refinery鈥檚 drive to attain full oil-refining capacity.

Hitherto, the Dangote Petroleum Refinery has planned to reach its 650,000 barrels per day (bpd) capacity by June 2025.

It, however, noted that low local crude supply from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) is currently a challenge to achieve this target to ramp up daily production.

The statement also noted the 12 million barrels of crude had already left the United States, and would land in Nigeria next month.

Dangote Refinery further quoted The Africa Report to have said: “About 12 million barrels of crude have departed the US and should arrive in Nigeria by February.”

The Refinery is said to be importing more crude oil as supply from the NNPC becomes insufficient for fuel production at the $20 billion Lekki-based facility.

The report said: “Officials at the plant said the facility has ramped up production to about 500,000 barrels per day, with the target of hitting the 650,000bpd mark by June this year.

“The NNPC is reportedly struggling to supply 350,000bpd to the Dangote refinery from the 450,000bpd crude meant for Nigeria鈥檚 local consumption.

“With its current production capacity of 500,000bpd, officials said there is a need to look beyond the shores of Nigeria for the feedstock.

“It was said that the feedstock needed by the refinery daily cannot be solely supplied by the state-owned oil company, NNPC.”

It is recalled that Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, July 2024, directed the NNPC to sell crude oil to local refineries in Naira.

According to the crude oil production forecast of producing oil companies and the refining requirement of functional refineries in Nigeria signed by the Chief Executive of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, Mr. Gbenga Komolafe, the Dangote Refinery would require 550,000 barrels of a blend of Nigerian crude oil daily, 17.05 million barrels monthly, and 99.55 million barrels between January and June 2025.

“The Dangote Refinery is already building eight more tanks to store imported crude. The facility is planning to stockpile imported crude oil as local supplies become unreliable,” the statement disclosed.

Officials of the refinery were quoted as saying that low crude supply from the NNPC 鈥渋s driving import dependence.鈥�

The building of eight additional tanks will see crude storage capacity at the refinery jump by 41.67 percent to 3.4 billion litres.

鈥淚mporting crude from other countries instead of buying locally means that our crude stockpiles will have to be higher,鈥� Devakumar Edwin, Vice-President in charge of the oil and gas business at Dangote Industries, reported said recently.

In May 2024, the refinery reportedly issued a term tender for the purchase of two million barrels of West Texas Intermediate Midland crude monthly for 12 months starting in July last year, amounting to 24 million barrels of crude in one year.

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