Nigeria’s 650,000 barrels per day Dangote refinery will start exporting diesel conforming to European specifications along with gasoline (petrol) sales in June, its Vice President for Oil and Gas, Devakumar Edwin, said at the weekend.
“We expect before the end of next month we’ll also have gasoline in the market, and we’ll also have Euro V diesel for export, that is below 10ppm”, Argus Media, quoted Edwin to have said at a Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) event in Lagos.
Dangote, chief executive Aliko Dangote reiterated the planned June start for petrol on May 17.Dangote refinery started its crude distillation unit in January, and received approval to start up a mild hydrocracker with its desulphurisation units in March.
A source at Nigeria’s downstream regulator, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) said the refinery has now received approval to start its residual fluid catalytic cracker. This implies that the facility can begin the refining of petrol.
Dangote started naphtha exports in March, low-sulphur straight-run fuel oil (LSSR) exports in May and began selling diesel and jet fuel domestically in April. It has a waiver from NMDPRA to sell diesel with sulphur levels above 600ppm into the local market, Argus said.
At full capacity Dangote will be able to more than meet Nigerian domestic gasoline demand. But a trader in the region said gasoline production is unlikely to start next month, citing the amount of cargoes to be delivered to the country.Exports of naphtha, a key blending component in finished-grade gasoline, are continuing from the refinery, with 80,000t due to load on May 31, according to Kpler.
Edwin, who hinted at a slowing of spot sales, said: “We had a meeting to see, probably, how we can slow down our sales because we’ve already made quite a few forward bookings,”“Export, for example, aviation/jet, the last vessel went to the Caribbean islands.
The next vessel, we are booking for US market,” he added.Dangote recently added TotalEnergies as a buyer in a deal that could see the French company take refined products for its African network of 4,800 retail fuel stations, including more than 540 in Nigeria.
The deal could also see the oil major supply crude to the refinery. A source told Argus there is a deal for TotalEnergies to supply two crude cargoes each month, or around 2 million barrels.Indications based on the refinery’s slate to date and TotalEnergies’ Nigerian crude equity suggest one cargo of the very light Amenam blend one of Bonny Light, the report added.
