President of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has revealed that the Dangote Petroleum Refinery currently has over 500 million litres of petrol in its reservoir, which is sufficient to meet local demand.
He further said the refinery now produces enough fuel for local consumption and export.
Dangote made this known during a tour of the $20 billion Lekki-based facility with the Zambia Minister for Energy, Makozo Chikote at the weekend.
The Zambian official was at the refinery to seek collaboration with the founder to help solve the country’s energy security issue.
Dangote said the refinery currently has N600 billion worth of stocks in its tank farm and that the plant will reach its 650,000 barrels per day full production capacity next month.
According to him, Nigeria cannot consume up to 50 per cent of the firm’s refined products.
“We can satisfy more than the local needs of Nigeria. As we speak, we have more than half a billion litres (of petrol). We have more than N600bn worth of stocks here today in the refinery. We have more than enough. The refinery is producing enough refined products, like gasoline, diesel, and kerosene, to meet 100 per cent of Nigeria’s requirements,” Dangote stated.
According to him, arrangements were being made to get enough crude oil to aid the refinery’s ramp-up plans.
“Now we are ramping up production. We must be at our full capacity by next month. But we have to do quite a lot of arrangements in terms of crude supply,” he stated.
On the quality of fuel, the billionaire businessman claimed that refineries across the world are shutting down because of the Dangote refinery.
He boasted that no refinery in Africa and across Europe can produce the kind of quality fuel his refinery produces.
Continuing, Dangote said the sulphur content of his fuel could be as low as zero parts per million while the octane number can be 95.
“In terms of quality, there is actually no refinery in Africa, even in Europe that can produce our type of quality. We want to be flexible, you know the laws keep changing.
“Today, they will say 150 parts per million; tomorrow it’s 50 ppm, but we can produce up to zero ppm. This means we can do winter diesel, we can do Euro-5. No refinery around here can do that. When you read the news, you see that a lot of refineries now, especially in Europe, shutting down because of our own refinery. Our refinery is a percentage of the world’s production.
“Obviously, if we pump a lot, some of them will not be able to sell, that’s why in some countries, they will offer them money to just keep dumping. But then, we have to weather that storm up to the time that we will be able to be on our feet,” he added.
Dangote maintained that the local fuel consumption in Nigeria is 40 per cent of the refinery’s total production, stating that the remaining 60 per cent is for export to other countries, especially Africa.
He said arrangements were being made with Afreximbank to resolve the challenges of letters of credit and financing.
“The maximum local consumption is around 40 per cent, but 60 per cent will be exported. We are making a lot of arrangements with some banks to make sure most of the products are sold within Africa; so that it can be a real African refinery, not done just for us to come and process raw materials and ship the products outside Africa. The problem has always been letters of credit; we are working with Afreximbank to resolve that financing issue,“ Dangote added.
On the types of fuel being produced and the one the refinery has a competitive advantage on, he posited, “We have competitive advantages over PMS, diesel, aviation fuel, and others. The consumption of aviation fuel in Africa is very low because we don’t have too many aircraft flying around. PMS is what people use a lot. Here in Nigeria, most discussions are on PMS. You know we just deregulated, and everybody is trying to find his feet. Now that the subsidy is gone, things are ramping up.”
Vice President of the Dangote Group, Davakumar Edwin, stated that the refinery has a strategic location advantage because it is close to the sea. He also reiterated that the refinery can meet all local requirements.
Analysing the refinery’s production data during a presentation, he stressed that the facility can produce 104 million litres of different petroleum products per day.
The Zambia Minister for Energy, Chikote informed Dangote that the Zambian government is mandated to safeguard the supply of fuel.
According to him, the nation needs energy security and the Dangote refinery will be important to make that happen.
